
Class SX £EQO 

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COPYRIGHT DEPOSm 



THE 
SACRAMENTS 



A SERIES OF SHORT INSTRUCTIONS 



BY 



David J. Toomey, Ph. D., D. D. 



BOSTON 
THE PILOT PUBLISHING COMPANY 

1916 






Nihil Obstat 

PATRICK J. WATERS, Ph. D. 

Imprimatur 

>J< WILLIAM, CARDINAL O'CONNELL 
Archbishop of Boston. 



f l C 
Copyright 1916, By D. J. Toomey 

APR 19 1916 

©CI.A427864 



CONTENTS. 

Pafif© 

THE SACRAMENTS: Their Nature and 

Number 5 

THE SACRAMENTS: Their Effects; Dispo- 
sitions Required 13 

BAPTISM: The Door of the Church 19 

BAPTISM: Its Effects 27 

BAPTISM: Its Ceremonies 32 

BAPTISM: The Duties of Parents and 

Sponsors 40 

BAPTISM: The Promises 47 

CONFIRMATION: Its Nature and Effects 53 
CONFIRMATION: Its Necessity for Sal- 
vation 60 

CONFIRMATION: Its Effects 67 

THE HOLY EUCHARIST: The Food of the 

Soul; The Teaching of the Church 73 

THE HOLY EUCHARIST: The Real Pres- 
ence ; Christ's Promise 80 

THE HOLY EUCHARIST: The Real Pres- 
ence; Christ's Promise Fulfilled . .. 88 

THE HOLY EUCHARIST: The Real Pres- 
ence ; The Testimony of the Ages 96 

THE HOLY EUCHARIST: Its Worship ... 105 
THE HOLY EUCHARIST: Its Place in the 

Church 112 

THE HOLY EUCHARIST: Devotion to the 

Blessed Sacrament 117 

THE HOLY EUCHARIST: A Sacrament . . 123 
THE HOLY EUCHARIST: Holy Commu- 
nion 131 



CONTENTS-Continued. 



THE HOLY EUCHARIST: The Necessity 

of Receiving Holy Communion 139 

THE HOLY EUCHARIST: The Disposi- 
tions for Receiving Holy Communion . . . 144 
THE HOLY EUCHARIST: Frequent Com- 
munion 150 

THE HOLY EUCHARIST: Thanksgiving 

After Holy Communion 156 

THE HOLY EUCHARIST: The Sacrifice of 

the Mass 162 

PENANCE : Its Necessity 171 

PENANCE: The Power to Forgive Sins ... 177 

PENANCE: Forgives All Sins 183 

PENANCE: The Acts of the Penitent: Con- 
trition 189 

PENANCE: The Acts of the Penitent* Con- 
fession 197 

PENANCE: The Acts of the Penitent: Sat- 
isfaction 203 

EXTREME UNCTION: A Sacrament 208 

EXTREME UNCTION: Object and Nature 214 
EXTREME UNCTION: Effects and Neces- 
sity 218 

EXTREME UNCTION: Sick Calls 224 

HOLY ORDERS : The Priesthood 232 ' 

HOLY ORDERS : A Sacrament 239 



MATRIMONY 
MATRIMONY 
MATRIMONY 
MATRIMONY 
MATRIMONY 



A Sacred Contract 245 

A Sacrament 252 

Its Unity and Indissolubility 259 

The Banns 265 

The Impediments 272 



THE SACRAMENTS: Their 
Nature and Number, 




IUR Lord and Savior Jesus Christ be- 
queathed to His Church as a le- 
gfgfa gacy by which she was to carry 
on His great mission of bringing 
salvation to mankind the seven Sacra- 
ments. These pledges of His love and 
goodness He left to her alone, to be 
guarded and dispensed by her. By the 
Sacraments, according to the Council of 
Trent, "all true justice either begins, or 
being begun, is increased, or being lost, 
is repaired." 

They are the channels by which the 
fruits of Christ's passion are brought to 
us, and by which the supernatural virtues 
are infused into our souls. They are the 
means by which grace is either imparted 
to us for the first time or regained after 
it has been lost through our own fault, 
or is increased. 

By Baptism grace is first given to the 
soul; by Penance it is recovered when it 
has been lost; by all the other Sacraments 



THE SACRAMENTS. 



sanctifying grace is increased and special 
graces are bestowed. 

A Sacrament is a visible practical sign 
of invisible grace instituted by Jesus 
Christ for our justification. Or, in the 
words of the small catechism, "a Sacra- 
ment is an outward sign instituted by 
Christ to give grace." 

Three things then are required to con- 
stitute a Sacrament: 

(1) An outward sign. 

(2) The institution of Christ. 

(3) The power of giving grace. 

By an "outward sign" is meant some- 
thing which we can perceive by one or 
other of our senses, and which makes 
known to us something else which we do 
not perceive. Thus if we see footprints 
we know that someone has passed; or if 
we see smoke coming out of a chimney we 
are certain that there is a fire in the 
house. In like manner the pouring of 
water or the outward washing in baptism 
is a sign of the inward cleansing of the 
soul from original sin. 

A Sacrament, therefore, is called an 
outward or sensible sign, because it con- 



THE SACRAMENTS. 



gists of something which can be perceived 
by one or other of our senses, and which 
represents the invisible effect produced in 
the soul. The outward part of the Sacrar 
ment is generally divided into matter and 
form. The matter is the thing used, to- 
gether with the application of it to the 
person who receives the Sacrament. The 
form is the words accompanying the ap- 
plication of the matter. 

Thus in Baptism the pouring of water 
on the head of the child constitutes the 
matter, and the words "I baptize thee," 
etc., the form of the Sacrament. 

As the Sacraments are the channels of 
divine grace and the means by which the 
merits of Christ are applied to the soul, 
our Lord alone has the power to institute 
them. There is no natural connection or 
proportion between the ceremony per- 
formed and the grace conferred. Hence 
the Sacraments derive their efficacy and 
virtue from the choice and power of 
Christ, who saw fit to choose them as the 
means of conveying grace to our souls. 

While there is no strict relation of 
cause and effect between the ceremony 



THE SACRAMENTS. 



and the grace, in themselves, the institu- 
tion of the Sacraments by Christ is emi- 
nently fitting, for the use of outward signs 
corresponds to our composite nature of 
body and soul, of senses, intellect and 
will. 

The Sacraments, as external and sensi- 
ble signs, form a bond or link of com- 
munion between Christians and are a 
mark of distinction between the Christian 
and heretics. They are a necessary corol- 
lary of a visible Church, an organic, hier- 
archically constituted body. 

The Sacraments are not mere empty 
signs : they have the power to produce the 
effects they signify. Thus in Baptism the 
pouring of the water accompanied by the 
word, "I baptize thee," etc., not only de- 
notes the cleansing of the soul but really 
cleanses it. The effect is due to the Sa- 
crament as the appointed channel for con- 
veying to us the merits of Christ, and not 
to the dispositions of the recipient. 

These dispositions, however, are strictly 
required in order to remove obstacles to 
the reception of divine grace and as con- 
ditions without which the Sacraments will 



THE SACRAMENTS. 



not produce their effect; but they are not 
the cause of the grace which we receive. 

The sun, to illustrate this point, is the 
cause of the light in a room, but if there 
were no window the light would not enter, 
no matter how brightly the sun were shin- 
ing outside. The window, however, is not 
the cause of the light; it is only a condi- 
tion without which the light cannot enter. 
But no matter how clear the glass may be, 
no light will enter if there be none out- 
side. So it is with the Sacraments. They 
give grace which is the light and life of 
the soul, but if the proper dispositions are 
wanting, grace cannot enter the soul. 

Again if the window be entirely covered 
with black paint it will admit no light, 
but if it be slightly tarnished or covered 
with dust, the light will come in, but less 
abundantly. So, too, the soul which is 
blackened with the stain of mortal sin 
cannot receive the grace of the Sacra- 
ments; while grace enters but less abun- 
dantly when the soul is stained by venial 
sin. 

There are seven Sacraments — Baptism, 
Confirmation, Holy Eucharist, Penance, 



10 THE SACRAMENTS. 

Extreme Unction, Holy Orders and Matri- 
mony. 

Since the Sacraments are free institu- 
tions, Christ might have chosen any num- 
ber, but as a matter of fact He chose 
seven, neither more nor less, as the 
Church teaches and has always taught. 
The Council of Trent points out a certain 
fitness why Christ should have instituted 
only seven. The Sacraments, it says, sup- 
ply the wants of our spiritual life, which 
correspond to the wants of our physical 
being. In order that the world may go 
on, it is necessary that men should be 
born ; that they should grow up ; that they 
should have food and nourishment; that 
they should be provided with medicine in 
time of sickness; that they should have 
help and support in old age; that there 
should be rulers to preserve order, and 
that one generation should succeed an- 
other. 

So it is in the spiritual life. We are born 
to grace in Baptism; we are made strong 
and perfect in Confirmation; we receive 
food and nourishment in the Blessed 
Eucharist; we have a sovereign remedy 



THE SACRAMENTS. 11 

against sin in the Sacrament of Penance ; 
we are protected and helped in last illness 
by Extreme Unction; we are provided 
with spiritual rulers by Holy Orders, and 
in Matrimony God gives His blessing to 
the union which is to furnish a succession 
of children for the Church. 
^Many are the figures used in the Sacred 
Writings to represent the Seven Sacra- 
ments. Seven is a number which in the 
Scriptures is mysterious. We find it in 
the seven columns, which divine wisdom, 
after building the house, placed to sustain 
it; in those seven lamps, seen by the pro- 
phet Zachary, always full of oil, and never 
dim; in the seven washings which Naa- 
man had to take in the Jordan in order 
to be restored to perfect health; and in 
the seven seals which, according to the 
Apocalypse, closed the book which no man 
could open. 

In the Sacraments we have remedies 
for all the ills of the soul. They are 
sources of grace which infallibly heal all 
who apply them to themselves with the 
proper dispositions. Yet there are many 
who neglect to approach these lifegiving 



11 THE SACRAMENTS. 

fountains, or who bring to them the 
wrong dispositions. Let us thank our Lord 
for His goodness to us, and resolve to 
make the best use of them. 




THE SACRAMENTS: Their 
Effects; Dispositions Required. 




© 



HE Sacraments are the great means 
of sanctification and consequently 
of eternal salvation. They are the 
divinely chosen channels of grace; 
by their right use man is sanctified; by 
them his sins are forgiven ; by them sanc- 
tifying grace is increased. The living be- 
liever, therefore, according to Catholic 
doctrine, is a man redeemed from sin and 
consecrated to God in mind and body. Such 
a man has a cycle of Sacraments, embrac- 
ing all the impdrtant events of life, and 
reflecting the ever-recurring needs of his 
earthly pilgrimage. And this cycle of Sac- 
raments symbolically expresses the high 
relation of each period of his life to the 
atonement of Christ, and guarantees and 
really imparts the divine energy which is 
requisite to the beginning and the consum- 
mation of sanctification. 

In speaking more in detail of the effects 
of the Sacraments we must remember that 
they all either produce or increase sancti- 



14 THE SACRAMENTS. 

fying or habitual grace in those who re- 
ceive them with the proper dispositions; 
that they all give sacramental grace ; 
that three of them have a third and 
special effect which is called a character. 

The end of all God's gracious dealings 
with us in the spiritual order is to restore 
the soul to that likeness of Himself which 
we lost in Adam, and to bring it back to 
a state of friendship, adoption and holi- 
ness, preparatory to a state of glory in 
heaven. Hence it is not sufficient that He 
should act on the soul. He must abide 
within it, imprint upon it a fixed quality 
by virtue of which it may be called holy, a 
friend, a child, and an heir to Heaven. 
This renovation of the soul is called habit- 
ual or sanctifying grace, and the process 
of being brought to this state is what we 
mean by justification. Grace gives the 
soul beauty, which makes it lovely in the 
eyes of God. It is internal as health is. 

All the Sacraments either give or in- 
crease sanctifying or habitual grace, 
which renews us, makes us holy, renders 
us friends and acceptable servants of God. 
Two of them, Baptism and Penance, give 



THE SACRAMENTS. 15 

first grace; they produce sanctifying 
grace in those who are destitute of it, and 
are intended to bring man to a state of 
grace, to raise the soul from the death of 
sin to the life of grace. Hence they are 
called Sacraments of the Dead. If, how- 
ever, Penance is received by those who 
already possess sanctifying grace, it in- 
creases that grace. 

The other Sacraments presuppose the 
existence of the supernatural life of grace 
as a disposition for their lawful reception. 
They are intended to increase grace. Hence 
they are called Sacraments of the Living. 

A second effect of the Sacraments is 
sacramental grace. Each of the Sacra- 
ments has been instituted for some partic- 
ular object which is different from that of 
any of the other Sacraments. By sacra- 
mental grace is meant a title to certain 
actual graces which enable the recipient to 
live up to the end of the Sacraments re- 
ceived. Thus Confirmation gives a title to 
actual graces to help us to profess our 
faith in spite of opposition. The Sacra- 
ment of Penance not only remits past 
guilt, but also gives us a certain claim to 



16 THE SACRAMENTS. 

actual grace to preserve us from a re- 
lapse into sin. 

Baptism, Confirmation and Holy Orders 
produce a third effect which is called a 
character. It is a spiritual mark or seal 
which is indelibly impressed on the soul, 
and which distinguishes those who have 
received it from those who have not, and 
fits them for the reception and perform- 
ance of certain religious functions. 

Baptism marks us as the children of 
God and makes us capable of receiving the 
other sacraments. Confirmation enrolls 
us among the soldiers of Christ, and en- 
ables us to fight in His service. Holy Or- 
ders makes those who receive it ministers 
of Christ and gives them power to per- 
form their sacred duties. 

This sacramental character can never 
be effaced ; it will last for all eternity, and 
will be a distinction and honor to those 
who are saved, and a badge of shame and 
confusion to the damned. Since these 
three Sacraments imprint a character 
they cannot be received more than once. 

While the Sacraments, then, are of 
themselves capable of producing grace, 



THE SACRAMENTS. 17 

something is also required of the person 
who receives them. And here enters a 
distinction between the valid and the licit 
or fruitful use of the Sacraments. A Sac- 
rament is valid when the matter and form 
instituted by Christ are duly applied by 
the minister of the Sacrament to one who 
is capable and willing to receive it. 

A Sacrament is received licitly when 
in addition to what is required for its valid 
reception, there are, also, in the recipient 
the dispositions required to obtain the 
grace of the Sacrament. He who receives 
Confirmation in the state of mortal sin 
is validly confirmed, but instead of 
receiving the grace of Confirmation 
commits a sacrilege. If, however, he were 
in a state of grace when he was confirmed, 
he would receive the Sacrament both va- 
lidly and licitly. In other words he would 
be really confirmed and really receive the 
grace attached to the Sacrament. 

We should approach the Sacraments, as 
Cardinal Bellarmine recommends, wil- 
lingly, with faith and with repentance. 
Our dispositions should be real, not 
feigned. We cannot deceive God. It is 



18 THE SACRAMENTS. 

useless to deceive the world; we only 
wrong ourselves. 

The effect of the Sacraments does not 
depend on the qualities or disposition of 
the minister conferring them. He must 
be ordained; and if ordained, the proper 
performance of the ceremonies is sufficient 
for the Sacrament to produce the grace 
which it was instituted to convey. This is 
a merciful dispensation, otherwise there 
would not no certainty, no security, no con- 
fidence, but confusion and disorder 
where the reception of one Sacrament 
is necessary for the valid reception of 
another. 




BAPTISM : The Door of The 
Church. 




©APTISM is the Sacrament which we 
must receive first ; it is the door of 
the Church and the condition with- 
out which no other Sacrament can 
be received. Hence it is the most neces- 
sary. All Catholics have received this Sac- 
rament, and cannot, consequently, be bap- 
tized again. Most of us received this Sac- 
rament at an age when we were incapable 
of understanding its dignity, the excel- 
lence of the graces which it gives, and the 
obligations it imposes. For that reason we 
perhaps have never sufficiently reflected 
upon it; nor have we thanked God, as we 
should. 

All the great teachers and doctors of 
the Church have spoken at length of the 
excellence of the Sacrament of Baptism 
and on its obligations. The Roman Cate- 
chism says that this is a matter of so great 
importance that pastors can not explain 
it too often to their flocks. 

And such instruction is more necessary 



20 THE SACRAMENTS. 

in our day when Protestantism is fast 
lapsing into infidelity. Living in this at- 
mosphere, our notions of the Sacraments 
are apt to become loose and uncertain. The 
need to refresh our minds and stir up our 
hearts by recalling the sublime truths 
which make up the edifice of our faith is 
consequently evident. 

Any consideration of the Sacrament of 
Baptism will naturally be based upon three 
points — its nature, its necessity and its 
effects. 

Baptism, a word derived from the 
Greek, literally signifies "washing." The 
Church has taken the term to denote the 
sacramental action whereby a person is 
washed from his sins and is made a Chris- 
tian. It is defined as a Sacrament by which 
we are cleansed of our sins and made 
Christians, members of the Church, chil- 
dren of God and heirs of Heaven. 

St. Paul refers to it when he says (Titus 
III), "According to His Mercy, He saved 
us by the laver of regeneration and reno- 
vation of the Holy Ghost." 

The time of the institution of the Sacra- 
ment of Baptism is somewhat uncertain. 



BAPTISM. 21 



It is certain that its use was common and 
thought absolutely necessary before 
Christ ascended into Heaven, for after the 
Resurrection our Savior commanded the 
Apostles: "Go ye therefore, teach all na- 
tions, baptizing them in the name of the 
Father and of the Son and of the Holy 
Ghost" (Matt. XXVIII). 

It was probably instituted before the 
Passion and at the time of our Lord's bap- 
tism by John the Baptist in the Jordan. 
Then it was that water received the su- 
blime virtue of regenerating to spiritual 
life. 

"Our Savior wished to be baptized/' 
says St. Gregory Nanzienzen, "to bury in 
the waters the old Adam and to sanctify 
the waters of the Jordan and give them 
the virtue of sanctifying those who in 
them were bapized." "Since Christ 
bathed in the waters/' St. Augustine says, 
"they have received the power to wash 
away our sins." Again : "Christ was bap- 
tized not that He needed to be cleansed 
but by the contact of His holy Body to 
give to water the virtue of cleansing souls 
from sin." 



22 THE SACRAMENTS. 

At the time of Christ's Baptism, as the 
Roman Catechism observes, the three Per- 
sons of the Trinity, in whose name Bap- 
tism was given, manifested themselves — 
the Father is recognized in the voice: 
"This is My beloved Son" ; the Son is vis- 
ibly present as man; the Holy Ghost is 
seen in the form of a dove descending upon 
our Lord. 

Lastly the effect of the Sacrament is 
manifest in the opening of the heavens; 
the heavens are opened to signify that by 
the virtue of Baptism we may enter there- 
in. 

Any water is the valid matter for Bap- 
tism. It is required that it should be nat- 
ural water. It does not matter whether 
it be rain-water or seawater, hot or cold. 
But it must be natural water. Hence we 
cannot baptize with water which comes 
from vines or trees or water distilled from 
roses or other flowers. 

Water is necessary for the validity of 
Baptism. Our Savior has declared it in 
express terms: "Unless a man be born 
again of water and the Holy Ghost he can- 



BAPTISM. 23 



not enter into the kingdom of God." 
(John III.) 

Any water is valid matter for the Sa- 
crament, but water blessed with a special 
rite is the proper matter for solemn Bap- 
tism performed with all its ceremonies. 
Ordinary water is used for private Bap- 
tism. 

How thankful we should be to God that 
for a Sacrament so necessary as Baptism 
He has chosen simple water as the matter. 
It is most easily procured and conve- 
niently applied. Moreover, water mani- 
fests most admirably the effect of Bap- 
tism, for as water washes away dirt 
from the body, so Baptism takes away the 
stains of sin on the soul; and as water is 
most effectual in refreshing and cooling 
the body, so by Baptism the heat of pas- 
sion is in great measure subdued. 

The form of Baptism is, "I baptize thee 
in the name of the Father and of the Son 
and of the Holy Ghost." These words must 
be pronounced distinctly at the same 
time as the water is poured, and by the 
same person who does the pouring ; other- 
wise Baptism is null and void. Omission 



24 THE SACRAMENTS. 

or substantial garbling of the words, the 
total separation of the form from the mat- 
ter, or the pouring of the water by one 
person and the pronunciation of the words 
by another renders the Baptism useless. 

The matter may be applied in three 
ways — by immersion, by infusion and by 
aspersion, according as the person is 
dipped in the water or has water poured 
on him or has water sprinkled on him. 
Any one of the three is valid, but that by 
infusion is the one used by the Church. 

The water should be poured on the 
bared head three times and in such a way 
that it may flow over and wet the skin, 
and the minister must have the intention 
of baptizing. 

Any person can validly administer this 
Sacrament whether cleric or layman, 
Catholic or infidel, man or woman, but the 
ordinary minister is a Bishop or priest 
who alone has a right to baptize in vir- 
tue of his orders. A deacon may be com- 
missioned for the purpose. Except in case 
of necessity no one else may baptize and 
no one beneath the rank of a deacon can 
ever do so solemnly. 



BAPTISM. 25 



In cases of necessity the following order 
should be observed: A woman must not 
baptize if a man is at hand, nor a layman 
if a cleric is near, nor a simple cleric if a 
priest may be had. When Baptism is given 
by a layman the person who best under- 
stands how to perform the ceremony 
should be generally preferred in practice. 

Baptism is absolutely necessary to sal- 
vation for all. "Except a man be born of 
water and the Holy Ghost, he cannot enter 
into the kingdom of Heaven." 

Children who die unbaptized cannot en- 
ter into the beatific vision. They 
do not go to Hell or Purgatory. The 
precise nature of the state to which they 
are consigned is not known. We must bow 
our intelligence and will to the wisdom of 
God, knowing as we do "that He hath done 
all things well." 

The case of adults is somewhat differ- 
ent. For them the actual reception of the 
Sacrament is not of absolute necessity, for 
if without any fault of theirs they cannot 
receive it, perfect contrition, which in- 
cludes the desire for Baptism, suffices for 
salvation. 



26 THE SACRAMENTS. 

Martyrdom, also, which is the greatest 
act of love for God, has always been 
held to supply the place of Baptism. Hence 
we may say that there are three kinds of 
Baptism — Baptism of water, Baptism of 
desire and Baptism of blood. 

The thought of the necessity of Baptism 
should make us zealous for the Baptism 
of all in whose salvation we take an inter- 
est, since otherwise they cannot enter the 
Kingdom of Heaven. We should see to it 
that it is not deferred or entirely ne- 
glected. 




BAPTISM : Its Effects. 




©APTISM is absolutely necessary in 
order to be saved; is an absolute 
condition for salvation. Pitiable, 
then, is the lot of those who by 
their own fault or neglect or misfortune 
never receive this Sacrament. Happy and 
grateful should we be that God has marked 
us out as the objects of His mercy by giv- 
ing us this incomparable blessing. And in 
order that we may understand the singular 
grace which God has bestowed on us, we 
shall consider its wonderful effects. 

By Baptism we were raised up from the 
depth of misery into which the human 
race was thrown by Adam's fall. We are 
all Adam's children and heirs of his diso- 
bedience, of his sin and of his punish- 
ment. Our nature was tainted in its very 
source, for, when at the suggestion of the 
serpent Adam sinned, the consequences of 
his sin fell not upon himself only, but 
reached to his farthest posterity. 

As poison thrown into a stream at its 
source will vitiate all the waters flowing 



28 THE SACRAMENTS. 

therefrom, so the poison of Adam's sin 
was disseminated through the stream of 
life as it passed from generation to gene- 
ration. And this taint is what we call 
original sin. 

With original sin on our soul we come 
into the world. There is no spiritual 
soundness in us. The understanding, the 
will, liberty, memory and desire are de- 
ranged by this inherited soul-disease. 
"Error and darkness are created with sin- 
ners" (Eccl. xi, 16). Error and dark- 
ness and falsehood — these are the herit- 
age of sinners. 

St. Augustine says that as in the begin- 
ning of creation all was darkness upon the 
face of the earth, so in the soul of man all 
is darkness and error until it is washed in 
the waters of Baptism. The will became 
so weak and helpless as not only not to be 
able to do any work meritorious of eternal 
life, but not even to follow a holy thought. 
Man, in the beginning, was created with- 
out any defect, but sin placed him in a 
deplorable state. Therefore St. Augustine 
likens man to a broken vessel. 

We are born with free will, but it is in- 



BAPTISM. t9 

clined to sin. Baptism restores the equili- 
brium and strengthens the will against 
sin. Our memory is filled with pictures 
of extravagance or folly or corruption. 
Our desires are like the untrained horse. 
In this state we are not lovely, not agree- 
able to God ; we are a disgusting sight to 
His chaste and searching eye. 

We are "by nature the children of 
wrath" (Eph. ii). God, notwithstanding 
His mercy and goodness, cannot love us so 
long as we are stained with original sin. 
Dying in this state our destination is other 
than heaven. 

This was our origin, our state, our pros- 
pects until Baptism cleansed us. "I will 
pour upon you clean water and you shall 
be cleansed from all your filthiness" (Eze- 
chiel XXXVI, 25). By Baptism our sins 
were taken away, our minds enlightened, 
our wills strengthened, our past redeemed, 
and our souls made lovely and beautiful. 

How we would thank a physician who 
had cured us ; a surgeon who had cut away 
the cause of our ailment; one who had 
delivered us by prompt assistance from 
certain death or from the loss of reputa- 



30 THE SACRAMENTS. 

tion and honor. These are mere worldly 
benefits. 

Shall we withhold our gratitude from 
God who has delivered us when we were 
as yet incapable of asking His grace, who 
has healed us, who has saved us from 
eternal death, who has ransomed us from 
the slavery of the devil and restored us to 
His favor? 

By Baptism God restored us to a state 
of grace ; sin is washed away. Sanctifying 
grace fills and beautifies the soul, which 
becomes the friend and child of God. Bap- 
tism makes us members of the Church; 
places us in the family of the elect and 
entitles us to the full enjoyment of its 
privileges and makes us share in the Com- 
munion of Saints. 

We become "the domestics of God and 
the fellow citizens of the saints." From 
children of wrath we become the children 
of God, loved like children and having the 
familiarity and the rights of children. We 
are the brothers of Jesus ; we who were the 
heirs of sin and death, are made heirs of 
heaven, according to St. Paul (Rom. VIII). 

Lastly we receive grace — that grace 



BAPTISM. 31 



which has made apostles, martyrs, confes- 
sors and virgins; that grace which won 
from God all those heroic virtues of the 
saints, their miracles and their ecstasies; 
that grace which gained for them an eter- 
nal crown. 

That grace can become for us a source 
of every blessing. Hence St. Gregory says 
that Baptism has made new him that was 
old, made divine him that was human. 
Have we not, then, every reason to thank 
God all the days of our lives ? 

Since such is the exalted position to 
which God has raised us, let us consider 
everything else in comparison as dirt com- 
pared to gold. We should keep before our 
minds always the day of our Baptism and 
keep it holy in the Church and in the fam- 
ily. Since we are children of a King, we 
should act as becomes our rank, with high- 
mindedness and nobility of character; we 
should scorn what is mean. Gratitude, in- 
terest and principle demand this so im- 
periously that it seems unnatural that we 
could ever act otherwise. 



BAPTISM : Its Ceremonies. 




(0 



HEN a king is to be crowned great 
preparations are made for the 
event, and the rites which accom- 
pany and follow the coronation give 
a solemn character which makes a deep 
and lasting impression on all who are 
privileged to be present. They go home 
with a profound conviction of the dignity 
and authority of the king. 

In like manner, in order to impress upon 
our minds awe for the Sacraments and to 
give us an exalted idea of their work, the 
Church has ordained the beautiful cere- 
monies with which each is to be adminis- 
tered and which give great solemnity to 
the occasion and serve as outward ex- 
pressions of those inward dispositions 
that are required. These rites present 
the mysteries of faith in a way that ap- 
peals to the senses. 

The Church, from the very beginning, 
has invested the simple original act of 
Baptism with a richness of symbolical cer- 
emonies in order to instil more deeply in- 



BAPTISM. 33 



to the minds of her children the idea of 
this Sacrament and to emphasize by var- 
ious emblems the exalted nature of the 
newness of life in Christ. These ceremo- 
nies are taken either from the Scriptures 
or from some important truth of religion. 
Some of them represent the dispositions 
for receiving Baptism; others its benefi- 
cial effects ; others, still, its obligations. 

The ceremonies either precede, accom- 
pany or follow the essential act of Bap- 
tism. 

Those which immediately precede Bap- 
tism are many and varied. They came 
down from the earliest antiquity ; and can 
be traced so far back as to make it prob- 
able that they were instituted by the 
Apostles. 

The child, according to the ritual, is to 
be brought to the door of the Church and 
kept there, if practicable, to signify that 
he is yet outside the Church ; a name of a 
saint is given whom he is to invoke as his 
protector and to imitate as his model. He 
is asked what he seeks; and he answers 
Faith, which gives life everlasting. He is 
reminded that if he wishes to enter into 



34 THE SACRAMENTS. 

eternal life he must keep the Command- 
ments: "Thou shalt love the Lord, thy 
God, with thy whole soul and thy whole 
mind, and thy neighbor as thyself." 

The priest breathes three times on the 
face of the one about to be baptized to 
indicate that the new spiritual life which 
the soul is to receive is represented by the 
breath, after the manner God breathed on 
Adam when He infused his soul. 

The sign of the cross is then made on 
the forehead and on the breast, while the 
priest says : "Receive the sign of the cross 
upon thy forehead and in thy heart; re- 
ceive the faith of the heavenly Command- 
ments, and let thy manners be such that 
thou mayest now be the temple of God." 

The sign of the cross is made on the 
forehead to give us to understand that we 
are to make open profession of the faith 
of a crucified God and never to be ashamed 
of His cross, and on the heart to teach us 
that we are always to have Christ cruci- 
fied in our hearts. 

After this there follow some prayers for 
the person being baptized to beg God to 
dispose his soul for the grace of Baptism, 



BAPTISM. 35 



that he may not receive it in vain. The 
priest then blesses some salt and places 
a grain of it on the tongue to signify that 
by Baptism the soul is seasoned by 
grace to keep it from the corruption of 
sin; that it may acquire a relish for holy 
things ; that prudence, of which salt is an 
emblem, may guide all its actions. 

The priest then proceeds to the solemn 
prayers and exorcisms used of old by the 
Church to cast out from the soul the devil 
under whose power we were born by orig- 
inal sin. He signs the forehead with the 
sign of the cross and bids, through Jesus 
Christ, the evil one never to dare to vio- 
late it. 

All these ceremonies are supposed to 
take place in the vestibule of the church 
to signify that the person to be bap- 
tized is not worthy to enter into the 
church until the devil is cast out of his 
soul. After these ceremonies the priest 
reaches forth one end of his stole, or lays 
it upon the infant, and so leads him into 
the church, saying, "Enter into the tem- 
ple of God that thou mayest enter with 
Christ into life everlasting/' 



36 THE SACRAMENTS. 

Within the church the priest, jointly 
with the party to be baptized or the spons- 
ors, recites aloud the Apostles' Creed and 
the Lord's prayer, for faith is the first 
and fundamental obligation of a Christian. 

The priest then reads another exorcism, 
commanding the devil to depart in the 
name and by the power of the Holy Trin- 
ity. He next wets his finger with spittle 
and touches the ears. This he does in imi- 
tation of Christ who cured with His spit- 
tle the man that was deaf and dumb, and 
to signify the opening of the inner ears 
of the soul, in order that he may be no 
longer deaf to the divine promises, threats 
and warnings, but that he, like a good 
sheep, may readily recognize the voice of 
the great Shepherd and learn to distin- 
guish it from false voices — "My sheep 
know My voice" — and may not be drawn 
away by the call of the world. 

Following a practice as ancient as the 
Church, the priest then asks the person to 
be baptized whether he is willing to re- 
nounce the devil with all his works and 
pomps, since he cannot serve two masters, 



BAPTISM. 37 



and he is about to choose Christ for his 
Master. 

The priest next anoints with chrism the 
breast and shoulders to signify that grace 
will strengthen the soul as oil does the 
body; that it will fortify the heart with 
heavenly courage to act manfully and do 
one's duty in all things; and that it will 
make one strong to bear all the adversities 
and crosses of this mortal life. 

The person to be baptized is questioned 
concerning the principal articles of faith, 
for faith is a condition for the lawful and 
worthy reception of Baptism. Then to 
continue the ancient custom of giving Bap- 
tism to no adults but those who were per- 
fectly willing and follow the example of 
our Savior who was wont to ask those who 
came to be cured by Him what they de- 
sired, the priest asks : "Wilt thou be bap- 
tized?" On receiving an affirmative an- 
swer he baptizes the person by pouring 
water on the head three times in the form 
of a cross, saying, "I baptize thee in the 
name of the Father and of the Son and of 
the Holy Ghost." 

The newly baptized is then anointed 



38 THE SACRAMENTS. 

with chrism on the top of the head in the 
form of a cross to signify that every Chris- 
tian is by Baptism made a partaker with 
Christ and has a share in His kingdom and 
grace, and that he is also in a certain 
manner a king and a priest. 

Then a white linen cloth is placed on 
the person baptized to signify the purity 
and innocence which are received in Bap- 
tism and which, he is admonished, he must 
take care to preserve until death. 

A lighted candle is placed in the hand 
of the person baptized, to recall the para- 
ble of the two virgins who took their 
lamps and went forth to meet the bride- 
groom, and he is admonished to keep the 
light of faith ever burning by the oil of 
good works ; that whenever the Lord shall 
come, he may be found with his lamp 
burning and may enter with Him into the 
eternal life of His heavenly kingdom. 

The priest in conclusion bids the person 
"Go in peace, and the Lord be with you, 
Amen." And well may the new Christian 
be dismissed in peace, for he who came 
burdened with the weight of sin goes away 
laden with the treasures of grace. "The 



BAPTISM. 39 



Lord be with you" is a prayer, that forti- 
fied by Baptism he may press forward 
from virtue to virtue and bear ever on- 
ward to the home of his eternity. 




BAPTISM : The Duties of Par- 
ents and Sponsors. 




IprlNY instruction on the Sacrament of 
3L4,1 Baptism would be incomplete if we 
W&a did not speak of the parents and 
the sponsors. 

Since Baptism is absolutely necessary 
for salvation, parents should see to it that 
their children are baptized as soon as pos- 
sible after birth. In many countries the 
custom is to bring the child to the church 
the day it is born. The parent who defers 
the baptism of his child is taking its salva- 
tion into his own hands, and will have to 
answer to God if the child dies without 
receiving the Sacrament. 

Among some parents there seems to be 
a tendency to put off Baptism until the 
child is some months old. Surely these 
parents know little of the importance of 
the Sacrament of Baptism and of its 
graces and blessings. One is tempted to 
doubt whether or not they have any real 
love for their offspring when they deliber- 
ately defer, to suit their convenience or 



BAPTISM. 41 



preconceived ideas, the great gift of 
Christ's faith. 

Parents and, in fact, all lay people, 
should know how to administer the Sacra- 
ment of Baptism in case of necessity. It 
is a simple thing. The person who is to 
baptize pours ordinary water on the head 
of the infant, and while pouring it says: 
"I baptize thee in the name of the Father 
and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost." It 
is not necessary to use holy water ; water 
from the faucet answers the purpose. Nor 
should any prayers be added. 

Simple as is private Baptism, it is 
strange what mistakes are made. Not in- 
frequently the priest is told on inquiring 
about a private Baptism that the person 
who is supposed to have baptized the in- 
fant said only the Lord's Prayer or the 
Hail Mary. Of course, in such a case there 
is no Baptism. Such occurrences make 
clear the necessity of constant instruction 
on matters that should have been learned 
in the penny Catechism. 

The father should, if at all possible, be 
present at the Baptism, and have ready 
the necessary information for the Bap- 



42 THE SACRAMENTS. 

tismal record. It is confusing and annoy- 
ing at times to find sponsors who are un- 
able to answer the questions of the priest 
regarding the date of birth of the child 
and the names of parents. If the father is 
unable to attend, he should make sure that 
the sponsors are familiar with the required 
information. 

In due time, therefore, the child must 
be brought to the parish church of the 
parents. This is the law of the Church, 
and parents should obey it. It seems un- 
necessary to point out that parents should 
know to what parish they belong, since 
parish lines are so clearly drawn. Yet it 
frequently happens that people, living in 
a place for even a year, take so little in- 
terest in their church that they do not 
take the trouble to ascertain in what par- 
ish they are. 

An effort should be made to conform to 
parish regulations. For the good order 
of the parish an hour is fixed for Baptism, 
and at that time the child should be 
brought to the Church. Yet in this again 
many persons show neglect and careless- 
ness. Although the hour is announced 



BAPTISM. 43 



Sunday after Sunday from the altar, no 
attention is paid to it. 

The choice of sponsors is an important 
matter. They are not required for private 
Baptism, but for the solemn administra- 
tion of the Sacrament they must be pres- 
ent. There must be at least one, and there 
cannot be more than two. 

The custom is very ancient, and dates 
from the beginning of the Church. It is 
spoken of frequently by St. Augustine 
and Tertullian. 

Sponsors, or godparents, are chosen that 
they may present to the Church the per- 
son who is to be baptized, and be wit- 
nesses to his Baptism and give him a 
name. They answer in his name and are 
sureties for his performance of the prom- 
ises which they make for him. 

They are therefore obliged to see, so 
far as in them lies, that their godchildren 
are brought up in the true Faith and in 
the fear and love of God; that they are 
instructed in Christian doctrine and that 
they make good those promises which they 
have made in their name. 

It is evident from this that no one should 



44 THE SACRAMENTS. 

be chosen to act as sponsor who is in- 
capable of understanding and fulfilling the 
obligations assumed. Some parents in 
choosing godparents do not seem to real- 
ize the office of sponsors. Hence they 
choose persons totally unfitted. Young 
children should not act as godparents. 
Neither should Protestant friends be asked 
to stand for a child. 

The child baptized becomes the spiritual 
child of the godparents, who contract with 
him a spiritual affinity or relationship 
which forms an impediment that pre- 
vents them from marrying either the child 
or its parents. The sponsors, therefore, 
should exercise in their behalf the care 
and solicitude of parents ; they are securi- 
ties before God and the Church, and if the 
parents fail in their duty the sponsors are 
responsible before God and the Church 
for the child's welfare. 

Sponsors should not, then, consider 
their presence at Baptism a mere matter 
of form. They assume serious obligations 
toward God and the child. Hence they 
should know the duties of a sponsor, and 
resolve to live up to them. No one should 



BAPTISM. 45 



be chosen for a sponsor who is not a sin- 
cere, good-living, serious-minded Catholic. 

Sponsors should acquaint themselves 
with the ceremonies of Baptism, and 
should learn the prayers and answers, and 
should conduct themselves with dignity 
and seriousness becoming the great Sacra- 
ment. 

The sponsors should stand, presenting 
the child, near the officiating clergyman. 
They should answer slowly, distinctly and 
intelligibly all the questions, and perform 
their part of the ceremony with readiness 
and without confusion, reflecting mean- 
while on their great obligations, and re- 
solving that they will ever remain faithful 
to them and zealously endeavor to dis- 
charge them. 

The parents, when present, ought to 
stand behind the sponsors, not gazing 
about or talking and lounging, but behav- 
ing as reverent and thankful witnesses of 
the Sacrament which confers such great 
blessings on their offspring. 

Others who may be present should be 
recollected, going back in thought to the 
days of Christ and the Apostles, from 



46 THE SACRAMENTS. 

whom these ceremonies have descended as 
a legacy. All should think of the happy 
day when they themselves were baptized 
and consider seriously what promises were 
then made and how they have observed 
them. 




BAPTISM: The Promises. 




Vf^l HEN the Hebrews were delivered out 
vjy of Egypt they made a covenant 
llll with God, by which they agreed to 
serve Him, while He promised to 
protect them. When we are baptized 
we are brought out of a state of bondage, 
delivered from the yoke of a tyranny more 
hateful than any which men can endure in 
this world, and we make a contract with 
God by the promises given for us by our 
sponsors. 

God in His mercy delivers us from the 
slavery of sin and of the devil. From reb- 
els and enemies He makes us His friends 
and children, partakers of His gifts, and 
imparts to us His graces. He promises us, 
if we remain faithful, the crown of eter- 
nal life. 

We, on our part, swear to God undying 
faithfulness; we promise in the face of 
heaven and earth, in the presence of God 
and of His angels, to belong to God alone, 
to be all to Him, to serve Him only, and 
consequently to renounce all that is op- 



48 THE SACRAMENTS. 

posed to Him and that He hates; we re- 
nounce the devil and all his works and 
pomps. 

Of all the promises which we can make 
to God or to man, none can be of greater 
consequence and importance, none which 
we should be more anxious to keep, than 
those which we make to God in Baptism. 
The Holy Fathers, in that admirable spirit 
of discernment which God gave them, 
have been able to see and have pointed 
out in the strongest terms the strict obli- 
gations imposed on us by these promises. 

St. Ambrose calls them a "contract of 
Faith." As men when they make mutual 
contracts give their plighted word and 
agree to forfeit their goods if they are 
found faithless, so in Baptism there is a 
contract between God and us. And as in 
every contract there are reciprocal obliga- 
tions and promises, so in Baptism there 
are mutual agreements and pledges. 

God delivers us from sin and its conse- 
quences, makes us His children in grace 
and promises us His glory. We renounce 
Satan with all his works and pomps and 
if we are so unfortunate as to become re- 



BAPTISM. 4* 

creant, we incur the pain of eternal dam* 
nation. 

St. Jerome and Paulinus, speaking of 
these promises, say that they are an oath 
of fidelity made by the creature to his 
Creator as to a Sovereign. When any one 
is raised by a king to a high dignity, or 
when, as in this country, a man is exalted 
by the choice of the people to a position 
of trust, he is required to swear fidelity 
to the duties of his position; he takes an 
oath of allegiance, promising to enter into 
no league with the enemies of the state, 
but to serve it to the best of his ability. 

There is no dignity greater or more glo- 
rious than that to which a Christian is 
raised, for he enters into alliance with the 
persons of the Blessed Trinity, becoming 
the son of the Father, the brother, co-heir 
and member of the Son, Jesus Christ, and 
the temple of the Holy Ghost. Therefore 
he must swear fidelity to God, his Sover- 
eign, who has raised him so high ; he must 
swear that he will not recognize or serve, 
but that he will always hate and oppose, 
the enemies of God — the devil, the world 
and the flesh. 



50 THE SACRAMENTS. 

St. Thomas regards the promises made 
by us in Baptism as so many solemn vows. 
Every Christian is a religious whose life 
should be modeled on the rule of that reli- 
gion which Christ Himself established, to 
which the Blessed Virgin and the Apostles 
belonged, which extends to the ends of 
the earth, and embraces all ranks of 
Christians ; of which the rule is the Gospel 
and the habit Christ, according to the 
word of the Apostle, "for whoever have 
been baptized in Christ, have put on 
Christ." (Gal. III). 

St. Augustine goes further yet and adds 
that the promises of Baptism are not only 
vows but the greatest of all vows, and in- 
violable, incapable of dispensation, for 
there is no power in heaven or on earth 
that can dispense from them. 

The circumstances which accompany 
these promises give them a most im- 
posing character. They are not made to 
men, but to God, and in a solemn manner, 
in the presence of those who are His repre- 
sentatives on earth; to God who is not 
satisfied with words but requires works; 
who will severely punish those who are 



BAPTISM. SI 



found wanting. They are made in the 
Church, which is the house of God, before 
heaven and earth, in the presence of the 
angels who are witnesses of our vows. 

The observance of these promises is the 
greatest glory and greatest happiness of a 
Christian both in this world and in the 
next. These promises are made by a mis- 
erable man who was first a slave of the 
devil and who was ransomed by the sacri- 
fice of the life and of the honor, and by 
the shedding of the precious blood of 
Christ. Man is the slave who makes a 
contract with his liberator, a servant with 
his master, a creature with his Creator — 
circumstances which increase infinitely 
and render stricter the obligation. 

These are our promises. No power on 
earth nor in heaven can free us from them. 
We are enrolled in the service of God ; not 
to fight in it is to become a rebel, a de- 
serter, an apostate, to merit death — not 
the death of the body but the everlasting 
death of the soul. 

~ In Baptism we make three promises : to 
renounce the devil, to renounce his works, 
to renounce his pomps. These promises 



52 THE SACRAMENTS. 

have been exacted from the beginning of 
the Church. We cannot serve two mas- 
ters. Christ Himself has said it. In choos- 
ing one we must renounce the other. We 
cannot be the temple of the Holy Ghost 
and the temple of idols, for there is no 
communion between Christ and Belial. We 
must belong wholly to Christ in body 
and in soul. Him alone we must love and 
serve. He suffers no division of service 
or love. 

By the works of Satan are understood 
all sins, particularly pride which is prev- 
alent, but is generally unheeded. And all 
sin includes thoughts and desires, words, 
deeds and omissions. 

By the pomps of Satan are meant, ac- 
cording to St. Augustine, unlawful de- 
sires, vanity and all those things which 
are generally done in the world of which 
the devil is prince and lord. It means to 
seek the pleasures of the body, to thirst 
for high places and honors. Pomp is ex- 
travagance and luxury at the expense of 
decency, charity and justice. 



CONFIRMATION: Its Nature 
and Effects. 




G~ IONFIRMATION follows Baptism and 
j is its complement. It increases 

H| within us the grace we received in 
Baptism, and makes us perfect 
Christians by imparting to us the Holy 
Ghost with the abundance of His graces. 
It completes what was begun in Baptism 
of which it is, as it were, the perfection. 

The grace of Baptism is one of regener- 
ation which makes us children of God; 
that of Confirmation is one of strength and 
courage which elevates us to the dignity 
of perfect Christians. 

Confirmation is so called because its end 
is to confirm and fortify us in the Faith 
of Jesus Christ. 

An explanation of the nature and effects 
of this Sacrament is necessary and always 
timely. On account of the ignorance which 
prevails among some people concerning 
this Sacrament, its reception is often ne- 
glected, and even when received, it does 



54 THE SACRAMENTS. 

not produce the results which, in the Prov- 
idence of God, it should. Those who have 
not received it ought to know something 
about its excellence. Those who have been 
confirmed should review what they were 
taught concerning the Sacrament and 
thank God unceasingly for the grace He 
has given them. 

Confirmation is a Sacrament instituted 
by Jesus Christ, which, by the imposition 
of the Bishop's hands and the anointing 
with Holy Chrism, confers the Holy 
Ghost with the plenitude of His gifts and 
imparts to the person confirmed special 
strength and virtue to confess with con- 
stancy the Faith of Christ. 

It is a Sacrament: this is of faith. It 
is not a simple ceremony of repeating our 
baptismal vows when we have come to the 
use of reason ; but a Sacrament instituted 
by Christ and handed down to us by the 
Apostles. From the Scriptures and tradi- 
tion we know that the Sacrament of Con- 
firmation was administered from the very 
beginning of Christianity. It was always 
considered a Sacrament. The so-called 



CONFIRMATION. 55 

reformers of the sixteenth century were 
the first to deny it. 

Confirmation is conferred only on per- 
sons who have been baptized. If it is ad- 
ministered to an unbaptized or an invalidly 
baptized person it produces no effect. 

There is a great difference between Con- 
firmation and Baptism, with which here- 
tics have tried to confound it. Confirma- 
tion is the perfection and complement of 
Baptism. The matter and form of the 
Sacraments of Confirmation and Baptism 
are different; the ordinary ministers are 
not the same; and the effects of the two 
are different. 

By Baptism we are born to a supernat- 
ural life of grace ; hence in Baptism we re- 
ceive a spirit of regeneration, of purity 
and innocence, of simplicity and candor by 
which we become, St. Peter says in the 
second chapter of his first Epistle, as 
"new-born babes." 

In Confirmation we receive a spirit of 
strength and courage which gives new 
vigor to faith and the other theological 
virtues which were infused by the Sacra- 
ment of Baptism. From children Confir- 



56 THE SACRAMENTS. 

mation makes us perfect, supernatural 
men, capable always of giving testimony 
to the Faith of Christ even in face of per- 
secution and death. 

Birth in the body is the first of the gifts 
we obtain from nature, and is the founda- 
tion of all those we subsequently receive. 
If, however, a child after its birth does not 
grow, it will soon either die or live a mis- 
erable, sickly, imperfect life, and will be 
a very imperfect man. So the supernat- 
ural birth, which is given in Baptism, is 
the first supernatural favor bestowed on 
us in this life, and is the foundation of all 
others that follow. 

But if we made no further progress and 
remained undeveloped into men by Confir- 
mation, we should be like helpless children 
when assaulted by the world, the flesh and 
the devil, and we should easily lose the 
grace of Baptism, thereby being deprived 
of its fruits. Hence, Christ has instituted 
the Sacrament of Confirmation to give us 
the strength and the supernatural weapons 
necessary to defend ourselves successfully 
against all attacks aimed to rob us of our 
birth-right. 



CONFIRMATION. 57 

The matter of the Sacrament of Confir- 
mation is the anointing with Chrism to- 
gether with the imposition of hands. 

In the Scriptures we read that St. Peter 
and St. John went into Samaria to confirm 
by the imposition of hands, the Christians 
who had already been baptized. 

The Bishop first raises his hands over 
all those who are to be confirmed and next 
anoints each one individually with Holy 
Chrism which is a mixture of olive oil 
and balsam, and is blessed every year by 
the Bishop on Holy Thursday. 

As in the other Sacraments, the matter 
is figurative of the operation of the Sacra- 
ment. Oil of olives has certain character- 
istic qualities — it penetrates every part of 
that upon which it is laid ; it softens and 
strengthens, — which fitly represent the 
similar effects of the Holy Spirit on our 
souls. The balsam which is mixed with it 
sends forth a sweet smell and possesses 
qualities which preserves things from cor- 
ruption. 

So it represents the Christian virtues 
which the Sacrament of Confirmation en- 
ables one to acquire, for these, like bal- 



58 THE SACRAMENTS. 

sam, have a powerful influence in preserv- 
ing us from the corruption to which we 
are exposed by contact with the foul touch 
of the world, and give forth a sweet odor 
to all who come within the atmosphere of 
our influence. As St. Paul says in the sec- 
ond Epistle to the Corinthians, "We are 
the good odor of Christ." 

Holy Chrism is put upon our foreheads 
in the form of a cross to signify by the 
anointing the principal and most visible 
part of the body that we should always 
profess our faith boldly and openly, and 
never be ashamed of the cross of Christ, 
but proud of it. 

The form of the Sacrament consists of 
the words pronounced by the Bishop while 
he extends his hands and while he anoints 
the forehead of each candidate for Confir- 
mation. The Bishop next gives a slight 
blow on the cheek, saying, "Peace be with 
you," to signify that we must, by the help 
of the grace given us in this Sacrament, 
bear all wrongs patiently and always pos- 
sess the peace of Christ. 

The ordinary minister of the Sacrament 
of Confirmation is the Bishop. This is 



CONFIRMATION. 5* 

clearly seen from the fact that St. Peter 
and St. John, and not the Disciples, went 
into Samaria to confirm those whom the 
Disciples had baptized. Moreover, the 
Bishops, who are the generals of the 
Christian army, and not deacons and 
priests, who are inferior officers, must 
muster soldiers into the service of Christ. 

Yet a priest may confirm with the per- 
mission of the Pope provided he uses 
chrism blessed by a Bishop. This permis- 
sion is granted in the Eastern Church and 
in distant mission fields. 

It is related in the life of the great St. 
Charles Borromeo, Archbishop of Milan, 
that, when in the visitation of his large 
diocese he found many grown persons who 
had never been confirmed, he wept bitter 
tears of regret and he multiplied himself, 
as it were, by his wonderful activity, so as 
to give all a fair opportunity to receive this 
Sacrament. Why the saint wept over those 
who were not confirmed, and was anxious 
that all should receive the Sacrament is 
explained by the great importance of the 
Sacrament and its wonderful graces. 



CONFIRMATION : Its Neces- 
sity for Salvation. 




© 



HERE can be no doubt of the import- 
ance of receiving the Sacrament of 
Confirmation, but the question nat- 
urally arises, is it necessary to re- 
ceive the Sacrament of Confirmation in 
order to be saved ? The Roman Catechism 
and theologians generally answer that the 
reception of this Sacrament is not of such 
strict obligation that, without it, one may 
not be saved, as is the case with Baptism 
for all and Penance for those who have 
committed grievous sin after Baptism. 

Nevertheless, though Confirmation is 
not absolutely necessary for salvation, it 
should not be neglected ; for it is a means 
of great sanctity by which God pours forth 
in abundance His graces and gifts. That, 
says the Roman Catechism, which has 
been proposed for our justification ought 
to be desired by all and be received with 
the greatest solicitude. They, then, should 
be confirmed who need spiritual increase 



CONFIRMATION. 61 

of grace and wish to become perfect 
Christians. Who does not feel this neces- 
sity? 

If, then, we cannot be full grown Chris- 
tians until we are confirmed, there is cer- 
tainly a duty devolving upon us to receive 
it; to neglect it when we have favorable 
opportunity for its reception is a sin. As 
parents take care of the children born tc 
them until they have grown strong and 
old enough to look out for themselves, so 
the Church in which we have been born 
again by Baptism does not neglect us but 
watches over us until we have been devel- 
oped by grace from "new born babes" in- 
to perfect men. 

Hence parents should understand how 
necessary it is that they have their chil- 
dren receive Confirmation. They should 
manifest deep solicitude and make every 
effort to bring about its reception. Parents 
take extreme care of the bodies of their 
children. They grieve and are sorrowful 
when their children suffer any bodily af- 
fliction or remain sickly and puny ; they do 
not spare trouble or expense to have the 
corporal defect removed or diminished. If 



62 THE SACRAMENTS. 

the result had been due to their negligence, 
they would not forgive themselves. And 
in this they are right. 

If, then, we cannot neglect without sin 
the development of the body, we cannot 
without greater sin neglect the growth of 
the better part of our children's nature, 
the soul. 

There is a lamentable indifference in 
this respect, but indifference does not take 
away the sin. So impressed by this act 
were the Fathers of the early Church that 
they often imposed severe penance on all 
parents who neglected to have their chil- 
dren confirmed. 

The solicitude we should have for the 
reception of the Sacrament of Confirma- 
tion is clear from another source. This 
Sacrament strengthens us, by the grace it 
confers, to resist the snares, temptations 
and assaults of our spiritual enemies. 

This life is justly described as a warfare 
in which, without hope of peace or truce, 
we must fight against the devil, the world 
and the flesh. Hence, "we take unto us 
the armor of God, that we may be able 
to resist in the evil day and to stand in all 



CONFIRMATION. 63 

things perfect," says St. Paul in his epistle 
to the Ephesians. 

And again, "Be strengthened in the 
Lord and in the might of His power. Put 
you on the armor of God that you may be 
able to stand against the snares of the 
devil." And the "armor of God" of which 
St. Paul speaks is certainly the Sacrament 
of Confirmation. 

The Sacrament of Baptism makes us 
followers of Christ and members of His 
household. Confirmation puts arms into 
our hands and makes us soldiers. Baptism 
helps us wonderfully but it leaves us dis- 
armed. 

He certainly would not be a wise man 
who, living under the protection of a pow- 
erful king, would go disarmed into the field 
of battle. He would be considered a fool 
and a doomed victim of his folly who would 
go unarmed on a long journey through for- 
ests and dangerous passes where he knew 
he would encounter fierce enemies, who 
would attack him and seek to rob him of 
his treasures, and to murder him. 

The same may be said of a Christian 
who, exposed as he is in this life to con- 



64 THE SACRAMENTS. 

tinual temptations of the devil, the world 
and the flesh, would neglect to strengthen 
and arm himself with the Sacrament which 
Christ has prepared for us and which is 
offered us by the Church. He would cer- 
tainly be culpable because he would expose 
himself to the evident danger of being con- 
quered and slain. 

The first Christians were most anxious 
to receive Confirmation and, because prac- 
tically all of them received it, few indeed 
gave away before the fury of their per- 
secutors. 

We are in an age and a country where 
the grace of Confirmation is especially ne- 
cessary. On all sides insidious attacks are 
made on our Faith. We live in an atmos- 
phere redolent with infidelity. We are told 
that all revealed religion is a failure, that 
our moral standards are a result of the 
ignorance of the dark ages. All that we 
hold dear is ridiculed. At no time was 
the aid given by Confirmation more im- 
peratively needed than today. 

This Sacrament confers, like all the 
others, Sanctifying Grace. But since it 
presupposes the grace of Baptism which 



CONFIRMATION. 65 

has been regained by the Sacrament of 
Penance, it augments Sanctifying Grace. 
Hence this is a Sacrament of the living 
and should be received in the state of 
grace. The effect of this Sacrament is to 
give us the Holy Ghost in His plenitude 
and to strengthen our Faith. 

The Apostles were a timid set of men. 
When our Lord was seized in the Garden 
of Gethsemane they ran away and denied 
any acquaintance with Him. Peter, the 
chief of Apostles, perjured himself and in 
open court swore that he knew Him not. 
But our Savior Himself promised them the 
Holy Ghost and bade them not to begin 
the great undertaking which He had con- 
fided to them until they had received the 
Paraclete. 

And how wonderful was the change in 
them after they had received the Holy 
Ghost. They went forth into the world 
braving every danger, overcoming every 
obstacle, everywhere proving themselves 
worthy disciples of their Master by their 
wonderful example of perseverance and of 
courage. 

In Confirmation we receive the same 



66 THE SACRAMENTS. 

Holy Ghost that the Apostles received on 
the day of Pentecost, with all His gifts 
and graces undiminished by time and dis- 
tribution. The only difference is that on 
Pentecost the Holy Ghost came down vis- 
ibly upon the Apostles ; upon us He comes 
invisibly but gives us the same powerful 
help against all our enemies, to conquer 
human respect, to overcome persecution, 
open and concealed, to resist the devil and 
to check the flesh. 




CONFIRMATION: Its Effects. 




c 



HREE principal effects flow from the 
Sacrament of Confirmation; it in- 
creases sanctifying grace, it con- 
fers a special sacramental grace 
and it imprints a character. 

In Confirmation we receive an increase 
of sanctifying grace, which renders our 
souls beautiful and acceptable in the eyes 
of God. An increase of sanctifying grace 
is to the soul what an increase of comeli- 
ness would be to the body which health 
and care tend to beautify and strengthen. 
Confirmation gives a special sacra- 
mental grace. In order to understand this 
we must consider the distinction between 
sanctifying and sacramental grace. This 
distinction will help us to understand the 
effects produced by the different Sacra- 
ments and will show better the harmony 
of parts and the richness of detail which 
distinguish the doctrines of the Catholic 
Church. Sanctifying grace is a general 
quality given to the soul which renders it 
holy and dear to God; sacramental 



68 THE SACRAMENTS. 

grace is a special quality which tends to 
embellish and strengthen the soul in some 
particular way for some special end. 

Like Baptism, Confirmation imprints on 
the soul an indelible mark called a char- 
acter, which no power can ever efface; 
which will remain with us forever as an 
additional badge of glory in Heaven or as 
an added sign of ignominy in Hell. Be- 
cause this character is indelible, the Sacra- 
ment can be received only once. The marks 
of other Sacraments may be effaced and 
replaced by repetition but not so in those 
Sacraments which confer a character. 

Since, therefore, Confirmation can be 
received but once, the importance of re- 
ceiving it well cannot be exaggerated. It 
is a fact to which most spiritual directors 
bear witness that from a bad Confirmation 
and a bad First Communion, we can trace 
all the subsequent deviations of many 
from the right road. Their sin was con- 
cealed for a time but the disease by being 
long hidden comes out all the more dread- 
fully afterwards. 

A stream long pent up, if at last it 
bursts its bounds, sweeps away with re- 



CONFIRMATION. 69 

sistless force every obstacle in its path. 
Parents should remember that the vices 
of their matured sons and daughters were 
sown in youth. At first these vices were 
but seeds, and might easily have been de- 
stroyed; but now that they have grown 
to frightful proportions their eradication 
is a matter of great difficulty and almost 
hopeless. 

In Confirmation we receive the gifts and 
fruits of the Holy Ghost. The gifts of the 
Holy Ghost are wisdom, understanding, 
counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety and 
fear of the Lord. We receive wisdom to 
give us a relish for the things of God, 
and to direct our whole life and all our ac- 
tions to His honor and glory ; understand- 
ing to enable us to know more clearly the 
mysteries of faith; counsel to warn us 
of the deceits of the devil, and of the 
dangers of salvation; fortitude to 
strengthen us to do the will of God in all 
things ; knowledge to enable us to discover 
the will of God in all things; piety to 
make us love God as a Father and obey 
Him because we love Him; fear of the 
Lord to fill us with a dread of sin. 



70 THE SACRAMENTS. 

The fruits of the Holy Ghost are, as it 
were, the offspring of His gifts. They are 
charity, joy, peace, patience, benignity, 
goodness, long-suffering, mildness, faith, 
modesty, continency and chastity. 

If the Sacrament does not produce in 
us the wonderful fruits which belong to 
it, it is because we have not received it 
worthily, or, having received it well, have 
lost its graces. 

For the worthy reception of the Sacra- 
ment of Confirmation, three things are ne- 
cessary. 

The receiver should be sufficiently in- 
structed according to his age and mental 
capacity in the necessary knowledge of 
Christian Doctrine, for, otherwise, he can- 
not have a proper understanding of what 
he is doing, nor those devout affections of 
the soul towards God which prepare the 
soul for receiving the graces of the Sacra- 
ments. Moreover, the duty which faith 
imposes upon us requires that we should 
be instructed in those parts of Christian 
Doctrine which each one ought to know 
according to his state in life, his age and 
his capacity. 



CONFIRMATION. 71 

We must be in a state of grace, for the 
Holy Scriptures (Wisdom 1, 4) assures us 
that the Holy Spirit of Wisdom will not 
enter into a malicious soul nor dwell in a 
body subject to sin. It would, therefore, 
be a sacrilege for a person who knows him- 
self to be in a state of mortal sin to pre- 
sume to receive the Sacrament without 
taking the necessary measures to put his 
soul in the state of grace and to be recon- 
ciled with God. 

We should have an ardent desire of re- 
ceiving the Holy Ghost with the abundance 
of His graces, and spend some time in 
prayer and preparation. Thus, the Apos- 
tles prepared themselves during the ten 
days between the Ascension of our Lord 
and the descent of the Holy Ghost on Pen- 
tecost; "All these were persevering with 
one mind in prayer, with the women and 
the Mother of Jesus and with His breth- 
ren." (Acts 1-14). If the Apostles, by 
the special inspiration of God, gave them- 
selves up to prayerful preparation for the 
coming of the Holy Ghost, how much more 
ought we to do so. Our Savior assures 
us that "Your Father from Heaven will 



72 THE SACRAMENTS. 

give the good spirit to them that ask 
Him." (Luke, XI-13). 

From these dispositions which are re- 
quired for the proper reception of Confir- 
mation, parents may conclude how strictly 
they are bound to instruct their children, 
and to assist those who are preparing 
them for this Sacrament. 

If we have lost the grace of this Sacra- 
ment, we must not despair, but strive to 
make amends for the effect of our sin by a 
good confession which will cause these 
graces to revive. 

Confirmation imposes on us the obliga- 
tion of confessing before men our faith in 
Jesus Christ, even at the peril of our lives, 
and of never blushing for His Gospel or 
cowering before human respect. The grace 
of Confirmation which enables us to fulfil 
this great duty of Christ's children is cer- 
tainly necessary in this day of infidelity 
and religious indifference, of rationalism 
and materialism. 




THE HOLY EUCHARIST : The 

Food of The Soul; The Teach- 
ing of The Church. 





HUS far we have considered the na- 
ture and effects of the Sacraments 
of Baptism and Confirmation, and 
we have marvelled at the wonders 
of God's mercy and wisdom as displayed in 
these Sacraments. By Baptism we are 
born again spiritually and become one of 
the family and household of God, princes 
of the Kingdom of Heaven. By Confir- 
mation, the complement of Baptism, we 
were transformed from spiritual childhood 
to spiritual manhood, from a child of 
Christ into a man of God, from an inno- 
cent but helpless infancy to a strong man- 
hood. 

We come now to another Sacrament, the 
Holy Eucharist, the greatest and most ex- 
cellent of all the Sacraments; that Sacra- 
ment which contains and gives to us really, 
truly and substantially Jesus Christ Him- 
self. 

By Baptism we are born into the 



74 THE SACRAMENTS. 

Church; by Confirmation we become full 
grown men of God, able to defend our- 
selves against our enemies, to overcome 
all obstacles, to endure every kind of suf- 
fering; we are made soldiers of Jesus 
Christ. But a man, be he ever so robust, 
cannot live without food. No soldier, how- 
ever handsomely accoutred, however 
orave, but needs food to preserve his 
strength and sustain his courage. Other- 
wise he becomes weak and is easily 
defeated. 

God regenerates us in Baptism, He per- 
fects our spiritual growth in Confirmation, 
and He gives us food in the Most Holy 
Sacrament of the Eucharist. Protestants 
say that we have been left a mere remem- 
brance of Christ, His sufferings and death. 
How poor, how mean, they would make 
the bounty of God! 

According to them, He would have done 
more for the Jews than for the Christians ; 
He would have bestowed upon them the 
marks of His favor, while He would have 
left us orphans, deprived of His graces 
and rendered poor indeed. 

If the contention of Protestantism were 



THE HOLY EUCHARIST. 75 

true, where would we find any superiority 
in the lot of the Christians over that of 
the Jews ? There would be, rather, a mani- 
fest inferiority, for while they witnessed 
many miracles, we would witness none; 
while they were blessed with His sacred 
presence and counselled by God Himself, 
He would be a complete stranger to us; 
while they had authorized and reliable 
teachers whom they might follow, we 
would be left to the uncertainty of our own 
wandering reason. 

According to Protestant theology, our 
Savior would have come and gone forever 
without telling us distinctly His will, with- 
out declaring definitely His truth, without 
teaching us even the delight of His pres- 
ence which even the Jews in the 
Temple enjoyed, without any miracle to 
correspond to the magnificent ones of the 
old law. 

The Catholic Church owns to a simpli- 
fication of the outward observance imposed 
upon us, but her doctrine is richer because 
the reality has replaced the shadow, so 
that there is greater faith required to be- 
lieve, greater strength and constancy to 



76 THE SACRAMENTS. 

practice, while there are immensely 
greater graces and favors conferred upon 
us. And in that sense we must under- 
stand that we are worshippers now in 
spirit and in truth. We alone can say "we 
believe in the love which God has for us." 
(John IV, 16). 

That we may proceed with order, let 
us first understand and recall the doc- 
trine of the Church on the Eucharist. This 
doctrine may be summed up in three great 
dogmas, — the Real Presence, the Sacra- 
ment and the Sacrifice. 

We believe that in this Sacrament there 
are contained, after the words of Conse- 
cration, the Body and Blood, Soul and Di- 
vinity of Jesus Christ, who is really, truly 
and substantially present and not merely 
as a sign, a figure or representation. We 
say, "after the words of Consecration" to 
offset the error of those people who hold 
that the Body of Christ is everywhere, as 
in the omnipresence of the Divinity, and, 
therefore, is in the bread and wine before 
Consecration, and of those Protestants who 
declare that Christ is only present during 
the act of Communion and not in the ele- 



THE HOLY EUCHARIST. 77 

ments immediately after Consecration; 
"truly/' to exclude any more figurative 
presence ; "really," not merely in the soul 
of the communicant or as apprehended by 
faith; "substantially," in themselves, not 
merely in effect or power. 

A necessary corollary of the Real Pres- 
ence is the dogma of Transubstantiation, 
by which the Church declares that the 
whole substance of the bread is changed 
into the whole substance of the Body of 
Christ, and the whole substance of the 
wine into the whole substance of His 
Blood. 

The substance of a thing is that which 
lies under its sensible appearance. Hence 
we do not know its existence by the senses 
but by reason. All we see, feel, taste, 
smell, hear, belong to the thing, but they 
are not the thing itself. They are called 
its accidents because they may or may not 
be in the thing without its ceasing to be. 
Thus bread has a certain form, taste, color, 
yet these qualities do not make up our idea 
of bread. They might be changed and yet 
our idea of bread remains. 

Now the miracle of the Holy Eucharist 



78 THE SACRAMENTS. 

is just the reverse of this. The substance 
of bread by the words of Consecration is 
changed into the substance of the Body of 
Christ but the appearance of bread still 
remains. This is what we mean when we 
say the substance is changed but the acci- 
dents remain. 

Jesus Christ is present under the ap- 
pearance of bread and wine and under 
each part of each species after the Conse- 
cration, and remains as long as the species 
remain uncorrupted. 

The Blessed Eucharist is a true Sacra- 
ment even under one species. This has 
been taught against by those who maintain 
that the Catholic Church mutilates this 
Sacrament by denying the chalice to the 
laity. The Holy Eucharist is moreover, a 
real, true sacrifice, though mystic and un- 
bloody, of the Body and Blood of Christ. 

Therefore in the Holy Eucharist we have 
three great points of belief, the Real Pres- 
ence of Jesus Christ, the reality of the 
Sacrament, the reality of the Sacrifice. 
These are three distinct ideas and we honor 
these three mysteries in different, distinct 
ways. We honor the Real Presence by ado- 



THE HOLY EUCHARIST. 79 

ration and worship, as when we visit and 
kneel before the Tabernacle ; we honor the 
Sacrifice by being present at Mass and tak- 
ing part in it; we honor the Sacrament by 
receiving Holy Communion. 

Sin made a triple wound in our soul. 
It caused us to forget God ; the Holy Euch- 
arist soothes this first wound by Christ's 
real Presence, which induces and obliges 
us to remember Him. In sinning we of- 
fend God grievously and rob Him of His 
glory; His glory is restored by the Mass, 
a sacrifice of inestimable value. Our own 
nature was weakened and corrupted ; Holy 
Communion cures this third wound, and 
heals and strengthens us. 




THE HOLY EUCHARIST : The 

Real Presence; Christ's 
Promise. 




IN speaking of the Real Presence our 
object is not to settle any doubt in 
the mind of Catholics nor to give 
any direct proof of it, for the doc- 
trine is founded on the authority of an 
infallible God and all the analogies of the 
Christian religion imperatively demand it. 
Our purpose is to reply to the objections 
of our enemies and to explain the meaning 
of those parts of the Testament which 
bear evidence to the truth of this great 
Catholic doctrine. 

The first great font of our belief is found 
in the sixth chapter of St. John's gospel, 
which is generally divided by Catholic 
theologians into three parts. The first 
part, from the first to the twenty-sixth 
verse, is a historical narrative of the won- 
derous miracle whereby our Savior fed five 
thousand persons with five loaves, of His 



THE HOLY EUCHARIST. 81 

walking on the sea and of the search for 
Him by the crowds the next day. 

At the twenty-sixth verse Christ's dis- 
course begins. With the story of the effect 
it produces on the Jews, it occupies the rest 
of the chapter, which contains seventy-two 
verses. The chapter pictures, according to 
Cardinal Wiseman, a striking counterpart 
to the whole of our Redeemer's life; it 
opens midst the wonder and admiration 
and the reverence of the multitude, and it 
closes with the scoffs and persecution of 
the Jews, the desertion of His disciples 
and the vacillating perplexity of the chosen 
twelve. 

Christ and His Apostles always adapted 
their sermons to the circumstances of time, 
persons and place. They were always care- 
ful to draw the lessons from the miracles 
which they had performed. This practice 
we note in Christ's talk to the Samaritan 
woman at the well ; in the cure of a long 
languishing man, (Jo.V) ; in the casting 
out of a devil (Mat. XII, 44) ; in the restor- 
ing of sight to the man who had been born 
blind. (John IX, 39). 

No more favorable opportunity could be 



82 THE SACRAMENTS. 

desired for propounding the doctrine of 
the Real Presence than the event narrated 
in the sixth chapter of St. John, for the 
miracle itself reminds one strongly of the 
Holy Eucharist, and compels the thinking 
man to connect the discourse occasioned by 
it with that Sacrament. It is almost in- 
comprehensible and in apparent oppo- 
sition to the laws of matter ; for the feed- 
ing of five thousand persons with five 
loaves is as contradictory as the presence 
of Christ's body on thousands of altars at 
the same time. And it was accompanied 
by the same outward acts which our Lord 
afterwards used in the institution of the 
Eucharist. 

A thoughtful comparison of St. John 
VI. and Mat. XIV, with Luke XXII., 19 and 
Mark VI-36 will create the strongest pre- 
sumption in favor of the Catholic interpre- 
tation of the sixth chapter of St. John. 
This presumption is strengthened by the 
fact that this chapter has always been re- 
garded as referring to the Eucharist and 
as establishing the Real Presence. It would 
certainly be strange if the truth should 



THE HOLY EUCHARIST. 83 

have been found by the so-called reform- 
ers of sixteenth century. 

The natural and obvious meaning of this 
chapter refers to the Eucharist and the 
Real Presence. Our Savior refers in the 
first place to the manna, the bread from 
Heaven, which was given to the Jews in 
the desert, and promises a better bread 
than that which was only a figure of what 
he was to give. 

Now if our Savior, in speaking of this 
manna, did not allude to the Holy Euch- 
arist, which has the appearance of 
bread, of what could He have been think- 
ing? If simply to Himself, His illustra- 
tions were senseless and unintelligible. 
When we compare things there must be 
some similarity which suggests the compa- 
rison. If this chapter refers to the Blessed 
Eucharist, this comparison is natural and 
apt, otherwise it is ridiculous and foolish. 
The subsequent institution of the Eucha- 
rist under the form of bread and wine con- 
forms strictly to this promise. 

In all that follows the impression deep- 
ens that our Savior speaks of the Euch- 
arist, for after leaving us to think of the 



84 THE SACRAMENTS. 

Eucharist He proceeds to strengthen 
our first impressions. If He were speaking 
of His person and of faith in Him, His lan- 
guage is most unreasonable. He would be 
subverting all rules of speech, for in no in- 
stance in the Sacred Scriptures are eating 
and drinking flesh and blood used in the 
sense of spiritual refreshment. If Christ 
were speaking of Himself, His flesh and 
blood were not the objects of faith, but 
His divine person, in which were hyposta- 
tically united the divinity and humanity. 

Moreover, in the language of the Scrip- 
tures, to eat one's flesh when used figur- 
atively means to calumniate and griev- 
ously injure that person. Again Christ 
speaks in the future. This would be pre- 
posterous if He spoke simply of His person, 
because having been from the beginning 
and to be for all eternity, He would natur- 
ally say "I give/ 9 not "I shall give." There 
is no relation whatsoever between His per- 
son and bread and wine. 

Christ could not have been speaking of 
His presence by a sign, for then His words 
would be meaningless. If there were noth- 
ing in the Eucharist but a sign and a sym- 



THE HOLY EUCHARIST. 85 

bol, how would bread, which would then be 
only blessed bread, realize all that our 
Savior says of it? He declares it to be bet- 
ter than manna ; yet manna was a miracu- 
lous bread which came down from Heaven, 
while the Eucharist would simply be com- 
mon bread blessed by man. He says that 
it is to ensure immortality; but if it be 
simply a symbol, how could it have such 
efficiency? If Christ wished to speak of 
the Holy Eucharist simply as a symbol, 
having no inherent virtue, He took the ut- 
most pains to be misunderstood. 

The manner in which the Jews under- 
stood Christ confirms all this. They un- 
derstood His words in the sense that He 
meant to give them His real flesh to eat, 
but, as they could not understand how this 
could be done and would not in the 
simplicity of faith believe it upon His 
w r ord, they therefore strove among them- 
selves, saying, "How can this Man give us 
His flesh to eat?" 

From this text and from what follows 
we have a most convincing proof of the 
Real Presence; and that the literal, plain 
and obvious sense of Christ's words, in 



86 THE SACRAMENTS. 

which the Jews understood Him, was the 
very sense and meaning which He in- 
tended. It is evident from the murmur- 
ings of the Jews that they understood Him 
in the literal sense as promising to give 
them His real flesh to eat, and that His 
own words compelled them so to under- 
stand Him. 

If, therefore, the literal sense which re- 
fers to the Real Presence had not been His 
meaning, and if He were speaking only in 
a figurative sense, then the Jews were mis- 
taken as to His true meaning, and He him- 
self had led them into their mistake. He 
was bound then to undeceive them. In- 
stead He confirms their first impression 
in the strongest language. He allows them 
to go away with this impression in their 
minds and when they were gone, instead 
of explaining Himself more clearly to the 
chosen twelve, He reiterates His instruc- 
tions in the same uncompromising terms 
and exacts faith in the only sense which 
His words would admit. 

If Christ had some other meaning be- 
sides that which the words naturally sig- 
nify, it is most probable that the theolo- 



THE HOLY EUCHARIST. 87 

gian, St. John, would have made some ex- 
planation to reveal the true and hidden 
meaning of our Savior, as he has in so 
many other instances. Everything, then, in 
this chapter of St. John — the words of our 
Savior, the conduct of the Jews, the nar- 
rative of St. John — shows conclusively 
that our Savior made a promise of the 
Real Presence of His Body in the Sacra- 
ment of the Holy Eucharist subsequently 
to be instituted. 

In the Catholic explanation of this chap- 
ter, everything is consistent from first to 
last. In the interpretation of Protestant- 
ism, everything is unnatural and forced, 
contradictory and repugnant to the rules 
of language and to the dictates of common 
sense and unworthy of Christ. 




THE HOLY EUCHARIST : The 

Real Presence; Christ's 
Promise Fulfilled. 




^jlAVING considered at length the 
JL|| promise of the Eucharist we shall 
J\f^ now examine the words and cir- 
cumstances in which this promise 
is fulfilled and the Eucharist which Christ 
had promised in such splendid terms was 
instituted. 

The institution of the Holy Eucharist 
is recorded in Matthew XXVI., 26-28, Mark 
XIV, 22-24, Luke XXII, 19-20, and I Corin- 
thians XI, 23-25. We have seen that the 
words in St. John's Gospel were spoken 
some time before the institution of the 
Holy Eucharist; that they created a pro- 
found impression on the minds of the 
Apostles, whom our Savior took every pos- 
sible means to persuade that He was going 
to bless them with His real presence, and 
they believed the words of their Master 
and were persuaded that He then prom- 
ised to give them a heavenly, life-giving 



THE HOLY EUCHARIST. 89 

bread, and that this divine bread was His 
"very flesh for the life of the world." 

From that day forward the Apostles 
lived in expectation of the fulfilment of 
that promise, of the reception of this heav- 
enly food. In the meantime, they saw Him 
perform miracles of all kinds. Nature was 
in everything obedient to His word. At 
length the desired day came. They were 
celebrating the anniversary of the passage 
of the Jews through the Red Sea and 
were eating the Paschal Lamb which was 
immolated and eaten in every family. 
"And whilst they were at supper, Jesus 
took bread and blessed and broke and gave 
to His disciples and said, Take ye and eat. 
This is My Body/ And taking the chalice 
He gave thanks and gave to them, saying, 
'Drink ye all of this ; for this is My Blood 
of the New Testament which shall be shed 
for many unto the remission of sins/ 
(Matt. XXVI.) 

The impression which these words must 
have made upon the Apostles is quite evi- 
dent. They could not possibly consider 
what our Blessed Savior here did and said 
except in the light of the fulfilment of the 



90 THE SACRAMENTS. 

promise He had made sometime before. 
He had promised to give them a heavenly 
bread ; He had, in the strongest terms, as- 
sured them again and again that this di- 
vine bread was His very flesh and blood, 
Hence, they firmly believed that it was so, 
because He, whom they knew to be the 
Son of God had said it. 

When, therefore, at the Last Supper He 
fulfilled that promise they were prepared 
to receive this heavenly food of His Body 
and Blood. They expected it, and as such, 
they received it from His hands. Though 
while they received they might have cer- 
tain difficulties, yet all these were obviated 
by their belief in His Divinity and by the 
numberless miracles which they had seen 
Him perform. They were convinced that 
He was able to do whatever He pleased 
and to fulfil whatever He promised. 

Our Lord and His disciples were keeping 
the feast of the Pasch by eating the lamb 
which was a striking type of Christ Him- 
self. Christ was about to institute some- 
thing to take the place of that sacrifice and 
to fulfil it. It is unreasonable to suppose 
that under such circumstances He would 



THE HOLY EUCHARIST. 91 

substitute figure for figure, shadow for 
shadow. We naturally expect reality in 
place of figure and substance instead of 
shadow. 

The Last Supper was our Savior's last 
act with His disciples before His death. 
He was making His last will and testa- 
ment. He is God infinite in power and 
wisdom. "Having loved His own, He loved 
them until the end." We naturally look 
for some external display of love. He was 
laying down a precept for perpetual ob- 
servance. Surely then He would not speak 
ambiguously; He knew that His words 
would be taken literally by the greater 
number of those who would believe in Him. 
He knew that they would cause the gift to 
be worshipped as God, and He purposely 
selected His words, yet He neither indi- 
cated Himself nor inspired the evangelists 
to indicate that He was speaking figura- 
tively. 

From all this it is quite clear that the 
literal interpretation is the true one, and 
that when our Lord declared that which 
He gave to his disciples to be His Body, it 
was truly His Body; and that which He 



92 THE SACRAMENTS. 

said was His Blood was truly His Blood. 
"Hence," we conclude with Bossuet, 
"the Real Presence is solidly established 
by the words in which Christ instituted 
the Eucharist, which we understand in 
their very obvious and natural sense. Now 
we cannot be called to account for this any 
more than a traveler who follows the high 
road. It is for those who follow obscure 
paths and have recourse to the metaphor- 
ical sense to justify their conduct." 

The Scripture is to be taken in its literal 
sense unless it is evident that it is to be 
understood in another sense. This is so 
clear that it needs no explanation. Not 
only is there no argument to prove that 
our Lord's words are to be taken figura- 
tively, but there are many indisputable 
proofs that they are to be taken in their 
obvious meaning. 

Protestants seek to establish a met- 
aphorical interpretation, on the ground 
that it evades a stupendous mystery. If 
such a plea were admissible, then the re- 
velation of any mystery would be impos- 
sible, for every time a mystery would be 
revealed, we would be in the position of 



THE HOLY EUCHARIST. 93 

having to explain away the natural mean- 
ing as a figure of speech. 

There is nothing in this passage which 
would lead us to interpret figuratively and 
to believe that our Savior, when He said 
of the bread, "This is My Body," gave to 
the sign the name of the thing signified, 
as for instance, a picture is called by the 
person whom it represents, a map by the 
country it describes. For bread is not an 
obvious or intelligible representation of a 
person's body. There is no relation of si- 
milarity between them. And this is the 
reason why all the parallel passages in 
which a figurative sense is universally ad- 
mitted are completely valueless. 

So true is this that even Luther was 
forced to admit, "I would that someone 
could persuade me that there is in the 
Eucharist nothing but bread and wine ; he 
would bind me by a great benefit. I have 
labored hard in this matter, and I saw that 
in this way I could molest the Papacy. But 
I see clearly that I am caught and there is 
no way of escape; the text of the Gospel 
is too clear." 

On the contrary, we have every reason 



94 THE SACRAMENTS. 

to believe that Christ intended His words 
to be taken in a literal sense. The met- 
aphorical sense is absolutely obscure, for, 
when a term is used figuratively, the figure 
is at once discovered by the natural simi- 
larity of the object or by usage, or from 
the context or from the declaration of the 
speaker. But none of these conditions are 
verified in the narrative of the Last 
Supper. 

Metaphors are used to add vivacity to 
the expression and consequently the figur- 
ative term of a comparison is always gen- 
eral. In the present case it is impossible 
to determine the figure or metaphor if 
such is intended. Protestants have tried 
since the sixteenth century but have not 
succeeded in finding it. Again the cir- 
cumstances of the festival of the Jewish 
Passover and the institution of the Blessed 
Sacrament which was to take its place, 
show that our Lord intended to speak lit- 
erally. 

To sum up : These words should be taken 
in the sense in which they were understood 
by the Apostles and by the Church from 
time immemorial. But both the Apostles 



THE HOLY EUCHARIST. 95 

and the Universal Church have always 
taken them in the literal sense. That the 
Apostles so understood them is clear from 
the fact that St. Paul, who relates the in- 
stitution of the Blessed Sacrament, does 
not warn us of the figurative sense. It is 
an indisputable fact that the Church in 
all ages has understood these words in 
their literal and obvious sense. 




THE HOLY EUCHARIST : The 
Real Presence; The Testi- 
mony of The Ages. 




X— IN the previous instruction we con- 
eluded from the narrative of the 

ggggj Last Supper that Jesus Christ must 
be really and substantially present 
in the Blessed Sacarment. Now we shall 
show that even if all the Scriptures had 
perished, if every text, on which we have 
grounded our proofs, were contested as 
spurious and rejected as unauthentic, we 
should still have an invincible argument 
from the tradition of the Universal 
Church. This argument from tradition 
we might develop either in a special 
or a general form, but on account of our 
limited space we shall have to confine our- 
selves to the general form which is more 
readily understood and appreciated. 

The special proofs, therefore, we shall 
not consider in detail, but pass over with 
the simple statement that all the Councils, 
all the Bishops, writers and doctors of the 



THE HOLY EUCHARIST. 97 

Church, down to the time of the Refor- 
mation, unanimously attest the doctrine of 
the Real Presence. And those who seek 
to overthrow this great dogma can pro- 
duce only a few texts which are easily 
explained and are of little account in face 
of the uniform character of all written 
documents previous to the Reformation. 

The very accusations against the first 
Christians point to the belief of the early 
Church in the dogma of the Real Pres- 
ence, for these calumnies must have had 
some foundation. They were accused of 
eating human flesh and of slaughtering 
children for a sacrifice. But leaving aside 
these special instances, we shall take up 
the general argument. 

All Christians must accept what the 
Apostles believed and taught; but it is 
quite clear that the Apostles believed and 
taught the Real Presence. Now the Apos- 
tles must have taught this doctrine if all 
Christians at the time of the Reformation 
believed in the Real Presence; for this 
universal belief must have come down 
from the Apostles. This fact is incon- 
testable. 



98 THE SACRAMENTS. 

No one will deny that, at the time of 
the Reformation, all Christendom believed 
in the Real Presence, as explained and 
taught by the Catholic Church. In fact, 
Luther himself admitted all her articles of 
belief and he only rejected them because 
his first error logically forced him so to 
do. His inconsistency brought him, as it 
has brought all Protestantism, into direct 
contradiction with tradition and Scrip- 
ture. Hence we have the strange exam- 
ples of Luther wishing that the Scrip- 
tures were not so clear on the Real Pres- 
ence and of Claude obliged to admit that, 
to be a Protestant, he must reject all tradi- 
tion and all history. 

If, then, the doctrine of the Real Pres- 
ence was universally admitted and be- 
lieved by the Christians in the six- 
teenth century, at the time of the so- 
called Reformation, this doctrine must 
have come down from the Apostles. Other- 
wise its origin and existence are inexplic- 
able. If the Apostles had delivered a con- 
trary belief, the doctrine of the Church to 
have become what it was in the sixteenth 
century must have undergone a change. 



THE HOLY EUCHARIST. 99 

But there is no ground for asserting that 
such a change took place. A change would 
have to have come about either gradually 
or suddenly, and either supposition is un- 
tenable. 

It could not have been made suddenly, 
for it would have had to be made all over 
the world at the same time. All the books 
and writings and ceremonies would have 
been altered the same way and at 
the same moment. In a word, the world 
should have gone to sleep believing one 
thing and should have awakened believing 
the contrary, no one protesting or even 
noticing the change. But all history is 
silent as to such a change. 

Nor could the change have come about 
gradually, for a change of belief on a point 
of such vast importance, a change of be- 
lief in the Eucharist, as a type of Christ, 
to a belief in the Eucharist, as containing 
the Body and Blood of Christ, could never 
have been made without protests and dis- 
cussions everywhere. 

Moreover, it would be possible to as- 
sign the time at which the change was 
made. But those who claim that such a 



100 THE SACRAMENTS. 

change occurred cannot point to any pe- 
riod in history when such discussions and 
protestations took place. They are obliged 
to admit that when Berengarius in the 
ninth and tenth centuries attemped to 
question and shake the faith of the 
Church, he was universally condemned. 
The whole Christian world rose up against 
him and his heresy did not extend beyond 
a few, nor survive even himself. 

No period can be assigned as the time 
when a Catholic doctrine which is so 
strange and extraordinary was introduced. 
For if a change had come about it must 
have taken place from the first to the 
fourth century, or from the fourth cen- 
tury to the ninth century, or from the 
ninth century to the sixteenth century. 
But it is impossible to find any proof for 
such a change in any of these periods. 

The Protestants claim that during the 
first centuries Christianity existed in all 
its purity; from the fourth to the ninth 
centuries, there were sects without num- 
bers, Arians, Nestorians, Eutychians, who 
were deadly enemies of the Church. Any 
change occurring at that time must have 



THE HOLY EUCHARIST. 101 

been either by heretics or by Catholics. If 
by heretics they would have been taunted 
for the change by the Catholics. If by the 
Catholics, the accusation would have come 
from the heretics. 

It cannot be maintained that this change 
of belief took place from the ninth to the 
sixteenth century, for it was during this 
time that the Greeks became Schismatics, 
that the Oriental Church reunited and sep- 
arated a second time from the Latin 
Church. If during that time any change 
had been made, objections would have 
certainly been raised on one side or the 
other. Moreover, it cannot be supposed 
that the change could have been made by 
the concurrence of both parties, or if made 
by one party, it would have been admitted 
and believed by the other. 

The Greek Church still exists and there 
are remains in the East of the earlier here- 
sies. We have the writings of their doc- 
tors, their prayer books, their Catechisms 
and their liturgical books and observances. 
Yet on the doctrine of the Eucharist they 
agree exactly with the belief and doctrine 
of the Catholic Church. 



102 THE SACRAMENTS. 

The Apostles must then have transmit- 
ted the doctrine of the Eucharist which 
we hold and teach. Otherwise a change 
must have taken place, of which, some 
proof or vestige would remain. This we 
have shown not to be the case. 

To sum up, therefore, the proofs of the 
Real Presence : the words of the Consecra- 
tion pronounced by our Savior at the Last 
Supper and recorded in Matthew XXVI, 
Mark XII, Luke XXII, 1 Corinthian, XI, 
are the foundation proofs. The words 
taken by themselves are clear and con- 
vincing proof of the Real Presence, as 
was admitted even by Martin Luther. But 
if those words are taken in their ante- 
cedents, and in their effects and conse- 
quences, the proof is overwhelming. 

In their antecendents — there are innu- 
merable figures of the Eucharist in the Old 
Testament and they suppose it, in as much 
as Christianity was in all things to abolish 
the shadow and the figure and leave us the 
reality. Moreover, our Savior promised 
this mystery solemnly on the occasion de- 
scribed in the sixth chapter of St. John's 
Epistle. 



THE HOLY EUCHARIST. 103 

In their effects and consequences — the 
action and the doctrine of the Apostles 
show us that Jesus at the Last Supper, 
meant to give us this Sacrament. The 
Church and the immense majority of even 
dissident Christians admit this doctrine 
and act consistently with their beliefs. If 
the Real Presence is not admitted, the fig- 
ures of the Old Testament were never real- 
ized ; our Savior's own promise was absurd 
and never fulfilled ; His conduct at the Last 
Supper is deserving of censure, since at 
the most solemn moment of His life, He 
deceives His Apostles; He who came to 
enlighten the world plunged His Apostles 
and all His followers into error and idol- 
atry. 

Believing the Real Presence, the conduct 
of God in the Old Testament and of Jesus 
Christ in the New is perfectly rational, 
full of power, magnificence, wisdom, good- 
ness; otherwise the doctrine of the Apos- 
tles and the faith of the Church are incom- 
prehensible. We possess in the Eucharist 
a treasure which demonstrates the full 
measure of God's goodness towards us. 
History no longer remains a painful 



104 THE SACRAMENTS. 

enigma and the Scriptures a deceit. If the 
doctrine of the Real Presence be not true, 
truth in this world is unattainable, Chris- 
tianity is a delusion. 




THE HOLY EUCHARIST : Its 
Worship. 




rJQplAITH teaches us firmly to believe in 
IJl^I the Real Presence of our Lord Jesus 
ffijjl And this same Lord, whose Pres- 
ence in the Eucharist we believe, is God, 
the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, 
who for us and for our salvation was born 
into the world and taking to Himself our 
lowly nature dwelt amongst us and died 
for us. 

Since Christ is present, therefore, in the 
Blessed Sacrament and since He is God, it 
follows, as a necessary and inevitable con- 
sequence, that Christ in the Eucharist 
must be worshipped as God dwelling with 
us, and we must give to Him the homage 
of our adoration. His being we do not per- 
ceive; His presence we do not feel; but 
faith tells us He is there and we must 
adore Him. 

If we were not to believe in the Real 
Presence and yet adore the Blessed Sacra- 
ment, we would be like idolaters; and if, 



106 THE SACRAMENTS. 

believing in His divine Presence, we did 
not worship and adore Him, we would be 
impious. Our devotion, then, to the 
Blessed Sacrament will be in proportion to 
the intensity of our faith in the Real Pres- 
ence. Coldness and indifference to the 
Holy Eucharist betoken a corresponding: 
weakness of faith in our hearts. 

Some allege as a reason, or rather, an 
excuse for their coldness that they can not 
realize the presence of Christ, since they 
cannot see Him. They say that if they 
had but lived in His day, had seen Him and 
conversed with Him, then indeed their 
hearts would have burned within them. 
Yet those who lived in our Savior's time 
have left us in the history of our Lord's 
Passion a sufficient testimony to the im- 
pression which His life and miracles made 
upon their hearts. 

If His humanity is hidden from us in the 
Eucharist His divinity was veiled under 
His humanity during His life, and if the 
stupendous miracles attest that His divi- 
nity, though veiled, was no less real, so the 
proofs of reason and the teaching of faith 
and the miracles, which in the history of 



THE HOLY EUCHARIST. 107 

the Church have illustrated his teaching 
and strengthened those proofs, are to us 
more than sufficient evidence that His hu- 
manity is really, truly and substantially 
present though we cannot see it naturally 
or perceive it with the senses. 

If we believe, therefore, firmly and 
adore profoundly, we shall be numbered 
with those blessed of our Savior who have 
believed though they have not seen. 

The Council of Trent specifies the quali- 
ties of the worship to be rendered to our 
Savior. This worship must be internal, 
external and public. Tradition is very ex- 
plicit on this point, as may be seen from 
the liturgies. St. Chrysostom says that the 
angels are present here and adore, where- 
fore, then, do we hesitate ; and, again, that 
as the Magi came in reverence and fear 
adoring Him, so should we. They saw 
Him in the manger, His divinity hidden 
under His poverty, His misery, His help- 
less state of infancy; we see Him on the 
altar; so we also should adore. And St. 
Augustine says that no one should take 
this food unless he has first adored it. 

The Liturgies confirm by act what we 



108 THE SACRAMENTS. 

gather from the words of the Fathers; 
according to all the Liturgies, the Host 
and the chalice are elevated after the Con- 
secration in order that we may adore 
Christ present. 

Protestants themselves see the logic of 
our adoration. They do not adore Christ 
in the Eucharist because they do not be- 
lieve in His Presence. We would not be 
consistent unless we adored Him. As, on 
the contrary, it would be idolatry to adore 
the Blessed Sacrament if Christ were not 
really present. Hence, Clausen after 
Zwingle, Calvin and Beza, declares adora- 
tion of the Blessed Sacrament to be a log- 
ical and necessary consequence of our 
Catholic Doctrine of the Real Presence. 
And therefore, his followers were very 
much incensed against Luther, because in 
his later days, he called the Eucharist the 
adorable Sacrament, thereby clearly im- 
plying the Real Presence. 

The Council of Trent justly condemns 
and anathematizes him who denies that 
Christ in the Eucharist is to be adored as 
God, for, it observes, we believe that same 
God to be present whom God the Father 



THE HOLY EUCHARIST. 109 

introduced into the world, whose coming 
the angels announced, whom the Magi 
prostrating themselves adored, whom the 
Apostles, as the Gospel relates, adored in 
Gallilee. 

This adoration should be both internal 
and external, since in the Blessed Sacra- 
ment, God is present in an external 
and sensible way. This. external worship 
must be, moreover, public, because the 
Blessed Sacrament is a family treasure, 
belonging to the whole Church, possessed 
by us all. 

The greatest object of the Catholic de- 
votion is the Blessed Sacrament, since in it 
we have God really present. The Eucharist 
is the centre of Catholic worship, from 
which all others radiate and to which they 
all refer. Hence, we pay worship of the 
most splendid kind to the Blessed Sacra- 
ment, such worship as we pay only to 
God. 

The Council of Trent says there is, 
therefore, no room for doubt that all the 
faithful of Christ according to the custom 
ever received in the Catholic Church 



110 THE SACRAMENTS. 

should venerate the most Blessed Sacra- 
ment with the same supreme worship 
which belongs to the one true God. Nor, 
because it was instituted by our Lord to be 
received as food, ought it on that account 
to be any the less an object of devotion, 
for we believe that in it is present that 
same God whom when the eternal Father 
brought into the world, He said, "Let all 
the angels of God adore Him." 

When our Lord was about to die for us 
He instituted the Holy Eucharist. And in 
the last words He spoke before ascending 
into Heaven, as related by St. Matthew, 
when He promised to be with His Dis- 
ciples all days even to the consummation 
of the world, He refers not merely to the 
coming of the Holy Ghost who was to 
abide with them forever, but to His own 
real though invisible Presence with them 
in the Blessed Sacrament. 

As in the temple at Jerusalem and in 
the tabernacle in the wilderness there was 
a divine Presence which Moses and the 
priests could have recourse to in times of 
difficulty and trouble, so God is really pres- 



THE HOLY EUCHARIST. Ill 

ent in the Blessed Sacrament within reach 
of the faithful that they may present 
themselves before Him with their requests 
and in their troubles. 




THE HOLY EUCHARIST : Its 
Place In The Church. 




^=7|ESUS CHRIST is our Savior; 
v^l through Him alone we receive 
H H God's mercies and graces. Through 
His merits only may we hope to do 
God's will here and enjoy His blessedness 
hereafter. There are others, indeed, in 
whose help we may place our confidence, 
for whose assistance we may anxiously 
apply ; but they can help us only through 
Christ. They are like the moon and the 
stars, which reflect a light not their own 
but borrowed from the sun. 

Hence, with beautiful aptness our Sa- 
vior has been called in the Holy Scriptures 
the Sun of Justice, and our Blessed Lady 
has been likened to the moon and the 
Saints to the stars. Devotion, therefore, 
to our Blessed Savior is the one we must 
esteem above all others. As in the Blessed 
Sacrament we possess our Savior really, 
truly and substantially, in all His life and 
power — a way in which we enjoy neither 



THE HOLY EUCHARIST. 113 

the presence of the Blessed Virgin nor of 
the Saints — devotion to the Blessed Sacra- 
ment should be our greatest delight. That 
devotion alone can give us salvation, since 
it is directed to the Author and Source of 
all salvation. 

St. Thomas Aquinas refers everything 
in Christianity and in the Church to the 
Blessed Sacrament as its center. He 
teaches that all the grace we receive be- 
fore we are participators in this queen of 
Sacraments we receive only in proportion 
as we implicitly desire to receive Holy 
Communion; that the Blessed Sacrament 
is both the augmentation and perfection 
of the spiritual life within us; that the 
passion of our Lord is the fountain, origin 
and principle of the Blessed Sacrament. 

This devotion is the life of the Church. 
Without it we are cold and helpless. Pri- 
vate devotion at home is doubtless good. 
"The still, domestic oratory," says Car- 
dinal Wiseman, "with its little tokens of 
piety, is very composing and soothing, but 
the great and generous thoughts of Cath- 
olic heroism and sanctity are inspired at 



114 THE SACRAMENTS. 

the altar, where the adorable Sacrament 
reposes." 

Devotion, then, to the Blessed Sacra- 
ment should hold the most prominent place 
in the heart of every Catholic. It should 
pervade his whole life, since it is a mark 
of love and loyalty to his Lord and Savior. 
In it he should find consolation, encourage- 
ment and strength in the daily strife 
which he must wage to keep his soul clean 
and unsullied and pleasing in the sight of 
God. To Christ and the Blessed Sacra- 
ment the devout Catholic will bring his 
successes and his failures, his doubts and 
his misgivings. To his Lord, present in 
the tabernacle, he will come daily to offer 
his thanksgiving for the graces and bless- 
ings which flow into his life from the great 
White Throne above; to ask help in the 
difficulties that beset him. 

There should be no need to urge Cath- 
olics to have great devotion to the Blessed 
Sacrament, for it is the center of the life 
of the Church and should be the most im- 
portant thing in the life of the individual. 
The devotion is so easily practised. Where 
is the town or city today which has not 



THE HOLY EUCHARIST. 115 

its Catholic Church that is easy of access 
to everyone? There the Blessed Sacra- 
ment is kept; there Christ waits for His 
children to come to Him, that He help 
them, make life easier, strengthen them, 
heal the wounds that the cruel world in- 
flicts on their souls. Yet how few, com- 
paratively, pay a visit daily or even less 
often to the Blessed Sacrament. 

True, there are many who daily visit the 
Blessed Sacrament, not only once but even 
more often, good souls whose love for their 
Master leads them to His feet to learn 
there the secret of perfection. There are 
thousands upon thousands, however, who 
enter the Church only on Sundays to at- 
tend the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. They 
show little realization of the meaning of 
the great doctrine of the Real Presence. 

Nowadays there is absolutely no excuse 
for such indifference. It is safe to say that 
there is scarcely a Catholic today who 
does not pass a Catholic Church daily, who 
could not spend at least five minutes be- 
fore the Blessed Sacrament. In season and 
out of season, the priest tells his flock of 
the priceless value of devotion to the 



116 THE SACRAMENTS. 

Blessed Sacrament. Everything in the 
Church points to its preeminence, but in 
spite of it all the majority of Catholics 
maintain an indifference that is impossible 
to explain. 

There is also a simpler devotion to the 
Blessed Sacrament which unfortunately 
in our days seems to be dying out. Time 
was when no Catholic passed the Church 
without making some sign of recognition 
of the presence of the Blessed Sacrament. 
Unfortunately, it is getting altogether too 
common to notice Catholics pass the 
Church, either walking or in the street 
cars, and ignore entirely the fact that 
Christ is present therein. It surely takes 
no effort for a man to raise his hat when 
passing a Catholic Church. It is a custom 
that should not be permitted to die out. 

The excellence of Devotion to the 
Blessed Sacrament cannot too often be in- 
sisted upon. It is the maintenance of 
Catholic life and of Catholic activity. The 
Catholic who does not believe it, is Cath- 
olic only in name. There is no excuse for 
the man or woman who is not devout to 
the Blessed Sacrament. 



THE HOLY EUCHARIST : De- 
votion To The Blessed 
Sacrament. 




X 



N the Blessed Sacrament Christ lives 
in His Church and is the soul of 
her life. From His Sacred Pres- 
ence radiate all her power and 
energy. He is the centre of her worship ; 
to Him are referred all her homage and 
devotion. In her adoration of Her divine 
Spouse, the Church employs various forms. 
A common practice in Catholic countries 
is that of attending the Blessed Sacrament 
when it is carried through the streets to 
the sick, and of joining in the more solemn 
processions of the Blessed Sacrament on 
the Feast of Corpus Christi and at other 
times. The former is not practised in this 
country, but the latter, with the breaking 
down of prejudice and bigotry, is growing 
every year. 

There is no devotion to the Blessed Sac- 
rament more natural and simple than that 
of escorting the priest who bears the body 



118 THE SACRAMENTS. 

of our Lord. Were our Lord again visibly 
upon earth He would be attended wher- 
ever He went by crowds of the faithful, 
who out of reverence and love would be 
anxious to be near Him and to show Him 
every sign of honor. So, because it is Our 
Lord who is present in the Blessed Sacra- 
ment, it is but natural for us to show Him 
the same reverence and love, though we 
cannot see Him with our outward eyes. 

Another form of this devotion is the 
visit to the Blessed Sacrament. 

It was the favorite practice of 
the saints. Nearly every great saint had 
a strong devotion to the Blessed Sacra- 
ment which he manifested by his constant 
visits to the Tabernacle. 

There is no need to speak at length of 
this practice which is filled with graces and 
blessings not only to the individual, but the 
Church at large. Every Catholic is fami- 
liar with it. 

Visits to the Blessed Sacrament, how- 
ever, may be classed as private devotions. 
Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, on 
the other hand, is a public and solemn de- 
votion. When we pay a visit to our Lord 



THE HOLY EUCHARIST. 119 

we go secretly, while in Benediction Christ 
sits, as it were, on His throne to receive 
public homage. 

Hence, wherever the Blessed Sacrament 
is publicly exposed, it is with all the out- 
ward reverence and pomp that circum- 
stances permit. The altar is adorned with 
lights and flowers ; there is music and in- 
cense. When the Blessed Sacrament is ex- 
posed for any considerable length of time 
persons watch or kneel in adoration before 
it. Let unbelievers object that God is not 
honored by such outward displays; the 
Catholic heart knows that it does honor 
Him. 

After the example of the wise men and 
Mary Magdalene and others, Catholics 
have in all ages shown their love for the 
Blessed Sacrament by offering the best 
they can procure to honor Christ's pres- 
ence. Mere external display is not suffi- 
cient, however. It must be accompanied 
by real inward devotion. It cannot be de- 
nied but that outward display tends to in- 
crease devotion. 

The object of Exposition of the Blessed 
Sacrament is to move men's minds to re- 



120 THE SACRAMENTS. 

member that it is Christ Himself who is 
really present. Man's mind is so centred 
on earthly things that it is extremely dif- 
ficult to touch him except through the 
senses. Hence the need of external dis- 
play. And all this is found in the Exposi- 
tion of the Blessed Sacrament. 

The flowers are symbolical of those 
living beings who adorn the altar of God 
by serving at it in the fullness of youth 
and piety, and whose sweetness and fra- 
grance have no higher end than to be sacri- 
ficed in God's service and glory. The in- 
cense is emblematic of those prayers of 
the Saints which ascend to Heaven as a 
sweet smelling odor; while the practise of 
excluding the external light and covering 
the images and figures is intended to con- 
centrate and direct attention towards that 
which is upon the altar and make it like 
the Lord in Heaven, the sun and centre of 
light and glory to the surrounding sanc- 
tuary. 

There are two forms of Exposition. 
When the Blessed Sacrament is exposed 
for a very short time as, for example, after 
Mass and Vespers, or at a short evening 



THE HOLY EUCHARIST. 121 

service, it is called Benediction, because 
the benediction or blessing which is always 
given at the end of every Exposition of the 
Blessed Sacrament by the priest making 
the sign of the cross with the Blessed 
Sacrament over the people becomes, in 
such short exposition, the most important 
part, as it were, of the service. Benedic- 
tion is therefore a short and less solemn 
form of exposition. 

The most solemn form of Exposition is 
the Forty Hours' Devotion. It is a devo- 
tion that was first instituted at Milan in 
1534, and was thence introduced into 
Rome through the instrumentality of St. 
Philip Neri. It received the formal sanc- 
tion of Pope Clement VIII in 1592. It took 
its name from the custom of portioning 
out the whole year among the churches of 
any large town, where there were a suffi- 
cient number of them, into classes of eight 
and forty hours, during which time the 
Blessed Sacrament was solemnly exposed 
in each church in succession. 

The Exposition takes place in the Forty 
Hours Prayer with more solemnity than at 
any other time. It begins and ends with a 



122 THE SACRAMENTS. 

High Mass and procession, and is con- 
ducted under special regulations and ac- 
companied with particular prayers. It was 
instituted as a means of making a more 
general and solemn supplication to God in 
times of sickness and national calamity. 




THE HOLY EUCHARIST 

Sacrament. 




c 



HE Holy Eucharist is, as we have 
seen, the centre of Catholic Wor- 
ship. It is, also, a Sacrament, the 
food by which the life of grace 
is developed in the soul of the individual. 
The Holy Eucharist, as a Sacrament, may 
be thus defined: The Sacrament of the 
Body and Blood of Christ under the spe- 
cies of bread and wine, instituted as food 
for spiritual nourishment. It is third 
among the Sacraments, but by far exceeds 
them all in dignity, for, while the other 
Sacraments contain grace, the Eucharist 
contains Jesus Christ Himself, the Author 
of all graces. 

Again the other Sacraments look to the 
Eucharist as to their end. Baptism, Con- 
firmation and Penance more or less pre- 
pare for its reception; Extreme Unction 
removes whatever may impede its effects 
in the soul of the dying ; Matrimony signi- 
fies its special grace of union between 
Christ and His Church; Holy Orders con- 
fer the power of consecration. 



124 THE SACRAMENTS. 

The other Sacraments exist only during 
the act of administration ; the Holy Euch- 
arist exists from the moment of Conse- 
cration and as long as the species remain 
uncorrupted. In the other Sacraments, 
the substance of the matter is always the 
same, but in the Eucharist it is changed 
by the words of Consecration. 

This Sacrament has various names. It 
is called the Holy Eucharist, because, at its 
institution, our Lord gave thanks to His 
Father, and because it is our chief act of 
thanksgiving to God. It is called Holy 
Communion, because, by it, we are joined 
together in Communion with Christ and 
with one another, as St. Paul says (1 Cor. 
X. 17), "We, being many, are one bread 
and one body, all that partake of one 
bread." 

It is called the Most Holy, because of its 
great dignity. It is called the Holy Host, 
because it contains Jesus Christ who is 
the Victim for our salvation. And it is 
called the Viaticum, because it supports 
us on our way at the end of our journey 
through this life. 

This Sacrament consists of two species, 



THE HOLY EUCHARIST. 125 

— the Body of Christ under the appear- 
ance of bread and the Blood of Christ un- 
der the appearance of wine. And yet the 
Sacrament is one, for the two species have 
but one object, the perfect nourishment, 
strengthening and refreshment of the 
soul. 

This spiritual refreshment is the grace 
which the Holy Eucharist, as a Sacra- 
ment, signifies and effects. With respect 
to the past, the Eucharist represents the 
passion and death of Christ; It is the Body 
broken and the Blood shed set before us, 
"As often," says St. Paul, (1 Cor. X. 17) 
"as ye shall eat this Bread and drink the 
chalice, ye shall show the death of the 
Lord till He come." 

"The bread," says the Roman Catechism 
"made of many grains, and wine pressed 
out from many clusters of grapes, declare 
that we, though many are most closely 
bound together by the bond of this Divine 
Mystery and made, as it were, one body; 
further it promises and prefigures the 
union with God in the beatific vision." 

It is most fitting that Christ our Lord 
should have employed for the matter of 



126 THE SACRAMENTS. 

this Sacrament something different from 
His Body and Blood, for we could not ex- 
pect that God would appear to us either in 
His glorified or natural state, since His 
veiled Presence gives us the opportunity to 
exercise our faith, and overcomes our hu- 
mility, our unwillingness and fear to ap- 
proach Him. 

Christ is present wholly and entirely, 
Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity, under each 
species. For, in His glorified state, there 
could be no separation between His human- 
ity and His Divinity, His Body and His 
Blood. Hence, though we receive Holy 
Communion under but one species, we re- 
ceive Jesus Christ whole and entire. 

The effects of the Blessed Sacrament 
are much more admirable than those pro- 
duced by the other Sacraments. Well has 
our Savior said, in speaking of this food, 
that as the Eternal Father had sent Him 
and He lived for the Father, so will the 
Christian live for Christ who eats Him. 
"As the living Father hath sent Me and 
I live by the Father and he who eateth 
Me will live by Me." (John VI) . 

As if, to use the interpretations of the 



THE HOLY EUCHARIST. 127 

Fathers, Christ had said : "As the Father 
by an eternal generation communicates to 
Me His divinity, His power, His goodness, 
His life, so to that soul which, in this Sacra- 
ment, eats My Body and drinks of My 
Blood, I will communicate, in due propor- 
tion, My divinity, make him participant of 
My holiness and of My virtues." 

The Holy Eucharist, in common with the 
other Sacraments, confers sanctifying 
grace, but more abundantly, because it con- 
tains the Author of grace Himself. "In 
this sacred banquet," the Church says, 
"the soul is filled with grace." Its special 
effect, which distinguished it from other 
Sacraments, is the gift of spiritual nour- 
ishment. 

Our Lord instituted it under the species 
of bread and wine to signify that it pro- 
duces in the soul all the effects that mate- 
rial food produces in the body. "My flesh 
is meat indeed and My blood is drink in- 
deed." Material nourishment benefits the 
body by becoming one with it; it is not 
simply conveyed to the stomach, but it 
spreads throughout the body, loses its own 
nature and becomes one with the body. 



128 THE SACRAMENTS. 

So in the Blessed Sacrament, as Christ 
says, "He that eateth My Flesh and drink- 
eth My Blood dwelleth in Me and I in him." 
As material bread restores, preserves and 
strengthens the body, so the Bread of Life 
nourishes the soul. It gives health to the 
soul, not indeed by taking away mortal sin 
and restoring to life the soul that was dead 
by sin, — and in this it is like material food 
which gives strength to a body that is 
weakened but does not give it life — but it 
restores the soul in this sense, that it re- 
mits venial sin and gives back what is lost 
every day by our daily faults, as corporal 
food restores that which the body loses by 
exertion. And this is accomplished by en- 
kindling the fervor of charity, which is op- 
posed to venial sin. 

The Blessed Eucharist strengthens the 
soul against future mortal sin. As the body 
is protected against death by natural food 
so the soul is kept from the death of 
sin by this spiritual food. "He that eat- 
eth of this Bread shall never die." This 
preservative effect is accomplished by the 
abundance of grace which gives a title to 
a copious supply of actual graces ; by pro- 



THE HOLY EUCHARIST. 129, 

ducing spiritual delights which sustain the 
soul in periods of temptation; by putting 
to flight the demons who tempt us, for 
this Sacrament, besides being the very 
presence of Christ, is a remembrance of 
His Passion which the devils dread; by 
diminishing, hindering and weakening our 
unruly appetites ; by impressing on us the 
mind and spirit, the humility, the sweet- 
ness, the charity and all the virtues of 
Jesus Christ, and making us participate in 
His life. "He that eateth Me shall live 
by Me." (John VI), 

As this divine Sacrament not only re- 
stores what we have lost but gives us far 
more, it causes us to grow in grace. We 
are led thereby from grace to grace, are 
made more and more perfect until we 
reach the end of our journey, the Beatific 
Vision; just as we read that the Prophet 
Elias was supported by that mysterious 
food the angel gave him forty days and 
forty nights until he came to Horeb, the 
mountain of God. 

For this reason, that it conveys eternal 
life according to the promise of Christ 
Himself, "He that eateth My Flesh and 



130 THE SACRAMENTS. 

drinketh My Blood has life everlasting," 
we call the Blessed Sacrament the "Pledge 
of Future Glory." In the Holy Eucharist 
we see God under the veil of Sacramental 
species ; in Heaven we shall see Him face 
to face. 




THE HOLY EUCHARIST : 

Holy Communion. 




rjpjrlOR the reception of Holy Communion 
\X-\\ certain dispositions are required 
in regard to the body and in regard 
to the soul. 

It is needless to say that the commun- 
icant's dress and person should present 
nothing unseemly or disorderly and that 
the whole demeanor should be modest and 
respectful. 

Those who are to receive Holy Commun- 
ion should be fasting from midnight from 
everything, however minute, that is taken 
as food or drink. This fasting begins from 
midnight because, in the Church, the nat- 
ural day is reckoned from that time, and 
the purpose of the fast is that the body of 
our Lord shall be the first food to pass 
the lips. 

Anything, however small, taken as food 
or drink breaks the fast. The fast, how- 
ever, is not broken by that which is swal- 
lowed unconsciously by us or by respira- 



132 THE SACRAMENTS. 

tion or saliva; for instance, we need not 
fear that we have broken the fast because 
we have unconsciously let a drop of water 
go down the throat in washing out the 
mouth, or in walking in the rain, nor need 
we trouble ourselves if we swallow a drop 
of blood from the gums or lips or nose or a 
piece of nail or hair, because they are not 
to be considered as food or drink. 

In olden times the fast was continued 
for six hours after communicating, but this 
custom has died out. Reverence, however, 
demands abstinence from food until the 
sacramental species are absorbed. 

There are certain exceptions, however, 
to the law of fasting. Persons who are 
dangerously sick or on the point of death 
may receive Communion without fasting 
and may continue to do so as long as the 
danger lasts. 

If the priest after the Consecration is 
unable to finish the Mass, and there is no 
priest at hand who is fasting, one who is 
not fasting must complete the Sacrifice. If 
a priest discovers that the chalice which 
he has consecrated is not wine, he is bound 
to reconsecrate and consume. Should the 



THE HOLY EUCHARIST. 133 

Blessed Sacrament be in danger of profa- 
nation it may be consumed without fast- 
ing. 

Certain dispositions are also required of 
the soul. The Blessed Sacrament as the 
food of the soul presupposes spiritual life 
in the communicant, for food is of no ben- 
efit to the dead. Hence, a state of grace, 
or a prudent judgment of being in such a 
state, is the first requisite for Holy Com- 
munion. He who receives, while conscious 
of mortal sin, commits a grievous sacri- 
lege. 

As food given to a person who is griev- 
ously ill instead of being of benefit aggra- 
vates the disease and hastens death, so 
Communion, received by a person in the 
state of mortal sin, renders more miserable 
the state of the soul and insures its eternal 
death. Throughout the Scripture, it is 
recorded that Almighty God, jealous of 
His honor and of the respect due to holy 
things, never fails to punish sacrilege with 
a particular severity. 

If God so punished men for the 
profanation of inanimate creatures which 
are consecrated to His service, what will 



134 THE SACRAMENTS. 

be the punishment for the unworthy com- 
municant who has outraged the Holy of 
Holies? 

St. Paul tells us that this sin is the 
cause of many severe temporal punish- 
ments. After showing the greatness of the 
sin and the dreadful punishment afflicted 
for it on the soul, the Apostle immediately 
adds "therefore are there many infirm and 
weak among you and many sleep" (1 Cor. 
XL, 30), to show that grievous infirmities 
and untimely deaths are the final decrees 
of this sin. He declares the punishment 
with regard to the next life in the striking 
words. "He that eateth and drinketh un- 
worthy, eateth and drinketh judgment to 
himself" (I. Cor. XL, 20). 

The example of Judas, the first that 
ever made an unworthy Communion, is a 
striking instance of the truth of this, for 
immediately after receiving the bread from 
the hands of Christ "Satan entered into 
him" and "he immediately went out" and 
agreed with the chief priests to betray His 
Master into their hands that night. This 
he did and received his thirty pieces of sil- 
ver. Soon after, tormented by his guilty 



THE HOLY EUCHARIST. 135 

conscience, he went to the chief priests 
and acknowledged his guilt, gave them 
back the money, and, in despair, went 
and hanged himself with a halter (Mat- 
thew XXVII, 5), "And being hanged, he 
burst asunder in his midst; and all his 
bowels gushed out" (Acts L, 18). 

The greatness of the guilt of an unwor- 
thy Communion appears not only from the 
punishment it receives, but also from the 
very nature of the offense. To receive Holy 
Communion unworthily is to receive it 
when a person knows that he is in the 
state of sin and at enmity with God; and 
that his soul is loathsome and hideous in 
the sight of God. 

Now since this Holy Sacrament was 
designed that it might unite us with Jesus 
Christ and that by it He might come and 
dwell in our soul, according to His words, 
"He that eateth My Flesh and drinketh My 
Blood abideth in Me and I in him" (John 
VI), to receive in a state of sin is to bring 
Christ into a soul which is loathsome and 
hideous to Him, an object of His horror 
and detestation, and to send the Author 
of life into a dead soul, to force, in a 



136 THE SACRAMENTS. 

manner, the Holy of Holies to take up His 
abode in a place of corruption. This is a 
grievous injury and affront. 

The great guilt also appears from the 
decision passed on it by the Scriptures. 
St. Paul says, "Whosoever shall eat this 
Bread or drink the Chalice of the Lord un- 
worthily shall be guilty of the Body and 
Blood of the Lord" (1 Cor. XL, 2). 

To be guilty of a man's blood is to mur- 
der him, and to be guilty of his body seems 
to be capable of no other sense than to 
murder him in a cruel and barbaric way by 
tormenting his body by a painful and ling- 
ering death. The unworthy communicant, 
like Judas, betrays Jesus Christ into the 
hands of His enemies, while he brings Him 
into a soul where Satan reigns as master, 
and he betrays Him, too, with a kiss, while 
in appearance he pretends to honor Him. 

The Jews scourged Jesus, crowned Him 
with thorns and crucified Him; the un- 
worthy communicant does Him an injury 
more grievous, more saddening to His Sac- 
red Heart than all these sufferings, for 
Holy Writ tells us that those who commit 
any mortal sin after Baptism "Crucify 



THE HOLY EUCHARIST. 137 

again to themselves the Son of God and 
make a mockery of Him" (Heb. VI, 6). 
How much more do they so do who make 
an unworthy Communion. In some ways 
they are more guilty than the Jews, for 
according to St. Paul, if the Jews had 
known it, they never would have crucified 
the Lord of Glory (1 Cor. 11, 8). The 
unworthy communicant knows Him to be 
the Lord of Glory and the Son of God and 
injures Him in so atrocious a manner. 

Those then who receive Holy Commu- 
nion in the state of mortal sin commit an 
atrocious crime. What of those who ap 
proach the alter knowing that they have 
venial sins on their souls? Do they com- 
mit a sacrilege ? The Church's teaching is 
that they receive Christ worthily, for ve- 
nial sin does not destroy the primary effect 
of the Sacrament, sanctifying grace, al- 
though it prevents the full effects 
of the Sacrament and it would be highly 
unbecoming to receive Communion with 
affection for venial sin without any desire 
to overcome it. 

Our Lord taught this lesson when He 
washed the feet of His Disciples before 



138 THE SACRAMENTS. 

He gave them the Holy Eucharist and 
said: "He that is clean needeth naught 
save to wash his feet." The Apostles were 
cleansed from sin but they needed to have 
their souls purified from the stains re- 
ceived by daily contact with earthly 
things. This lesson was figured by the 
manna which fell not upon the ground but 
on a bed of dew or a whitened surface 
which had preceded it. 

Venial sin, or rather the presence of 
venial sin, does not then make the 
Communion sacrilegious, but it does hinder 
that copious flow of grace which comes 
from the Holy Eucharist to those souls 
that are better prepared to receive it. And 
if we are sometimes astonished and pained 
to see in ourselves how little good comes 
from frequent Communion, we may find 
the explanation in some secret attachment 
to venial sin which acts like a barrier to 
the waters of grace. 




THE HOLY EUCHARIST : The 

Necessity of Receiving 
Holy Communion. 




W 



E have seen that the Blessed Sacra- 
ment contains the Body and Blood, 
Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ, 
really, truly and substantially, and 
that He is received and consumed by those 
who communicate. We have seen the dis- 
positions required for Holy Communion 
and the terrible crime they commit who 
receive unworthily. But we must not, out 
of fear, hold aloof and like the Jews before 
Sinai refuse to approach. 

St. Paul, after describing to the Corin- 
thians the terrible punishment of an un- 
worthy Communion, does not end by ex- 
horting them to abstain, but rather to ap- 
proach after having sought to obtain the 
right dispositions. It is our duty to re- 
ceive the Blessed Sacrament frequently. 

Holy Communion is, by divine precept, 
necessary for salvation, where it is at all 
possible, for all adults, and it is probable 



140 THE SACRAMENTS. 

that the implicit desire of receiving the 
Blessed Sacrament is absolutely necessary 
for all. Our Lord says: "Except ye eat 
the Flesh of the Son of man and drink 
His Blood, ye shall not have life in you." 
These words clearly indicate a direct pre- 
cept which obliges under the terrible pen- 
alty of eternal reprobation. 

The will of Christ that we should ap- 
proach Holy Communion is evidenced by 
the fact that this Sacrament was instituted 
by Him as spiritual food and refreshment, 
as the species of bread and wine show. 
As the natural life of the body cannot be 
sustained without its proper nourishment, 
so neither can that of the soul. Without 
this food the soul starves and dies of 
exhaustion. 

By other divine precepts we are bound 
to live perfectly (Matthew V, 48), to love 
God with our whole heart, (Matt. XXII 37) 
and to work out our salvation (Luke XIII 
24). Hence we are bound by the same 
precept to use, to this end, the means or- 
dained by Christ; and of all these means 
the Holy Eucharist is the most important 
and the most necessary. 



THE HOLY EUCHARIST. 141 

By it we are united to Christ as He Him- 
self says : "He who eateth My Flesh and 
drinketh My Blood abideth in Me and I in 
him;" "I am the Bread which came down 
from Heaven, so that whoever eats of It 
shall not die;" "Except ye eat the Flesh 
of the Son of man and drink His Blood, ye 
shall not have life in you," meaning that 
union with our Lord is a necessary condi- 
tion to salvation. As Christ says (John 
XV. 6) . "For if a man abide not in Me, he 
is cast off as a branch that is withered." 

Hence this Sacrament is justly regarded 
as the consummation of the spiritual life, 
the end of the Sacraments, and so a desire 
to receive it is included in Baptism, which 
is the entrance to the Sacraments, the be- 
ginning of the life of grace. 

There is a two-fold obligation of receiv- 
ing Holy Communion, one common, the 
other accidental. All adults are bound to 
receive Communion at least once a year, 
as was first decreed by the Council of the 
Lateran, and later confirmed by the Coun- 
cil of Trent. The Sacred Canons say that 
we must receive at least once a year, and 
that at Easter time. This fixes the mini- 



142 THE SACRAMENTS. 

mum, so that we are bound by a common 
precept to communicate once in a year, 
and that at Easter time. 

We are accidentally bound to receive 
Holy Communion whenever we are in 
proximate danger of death, on the occa- 
sion of receiving other Sacraments or 
when exposed to great temptation. 

We must not be discouraged by our fre- 
quent falls after Communion. We would 
become much worse if we did not commun- 
icate. Where Communion is not frequently 
received, the horror of sin becomes less, 
soon diminishes and love for God dies. The 
lamp of faith gives a feeble and uncertain 
light. The precept, then, of Holy Com- 
munion is to receive at least once a year 
and that during Easter time, under pain 
of excommunication. 

"How strange that God should be 
obliged to order us," says St. Augustine, 
"how strange that the Church should be 
obliged to urge us to Communion, the Sac- 
rament of love. There are some here 
who have, perhaps, been urged in vain. 
You have not life in you. You are as a 
branch and withered ; a little longer delay 



THE HOLY EUCHARIST. 143 

and you will be cast into the fire to be 
burned. These are the words of God and 
they will not pass away." 




THE HOLY EUCHARIST : The 

Dispositions For Receiving 

Holy Communion. 




~"|S the same food affects different peo- 
j pie in different ways, so the effects 
m J^ of Holy Communion differ accord- 
ing to the dispositions of those re- 
ceiving it. As St. Thomas puts it in his 
beautiful Eucharistic hymn, "The Blessed 
Sacrament is death to the wicked, life to 
the good." 

Actual devotion is not absolutely neces- 
sary as a proximate preparation for Holy 
Communion, but its absence is a sign of 
irreverence to our Lord and causes the soul 
to lose the special graces and more abun- 
dant blessings of the Sacrament. St. Greg- 
ory tells us that in early times there was 
a custom which was calculated to awaken 
communicants to a realization of the great 
act they were about to perform. The dea- 
con turned to them and said: "Come for- 
ward with faith and fear and love." It is 
by the exercise of these three virtues 



THE HOLY EUCHARIST. 145 

that we should prepare ourselves for Holy 
Communion. 

We should approach the altar with great 
firmness of faith. Faith is the first move- 
ment of the soul towards God, as St. Paul 
says (Heb. XI. 6) : "For he that cometh 
to God must believe that He is, and is a 
rewarder to them that seek Him." As in 
this Sacrament God has manifested so 
magnificently His wisdom and made it the 
center and the compendium of all His 
graces, no tribute is more becoming and 
just than that of Faith. 

That which is particularly due to a wise 
man is that his words should be believed. 
Jesus Christ coming in the Sacrament sur- 
rounded by so many marks of wisdom 
should receive from us the submission of 
perfect faith. This faith we should have 
for all the divine mysteries, but it is es- 
pecially necessary in him who receives the 
Blessed Sacrament, which is called the 
mystery of faith, for of all other myster- 
ies, it most completely bewilders and 
humbles reason, contradicts the senses and 
is most repugnant to man's pride and self- 
sufficiency. 



146 THE SACRAMENTS. 

Faith, then, according to St. Thomas, 
ought to be one of the greatest dispositions 
of a Christian about to receive Holy Com- 
munion. He says we should approach in 
the plenitude of faith. St. John Chrysos- 
tom makes the same recommendation. 

Since we believe that, in this Sacra- 
ment, we receive the most Holy Body, the 
precious Blood, the Soul and Divinity of 
Jesus Christ, we cannot but feel senti- 
ments of profound humility, of holy fear. 
This God, in whose presence the stars are 
not pure, the columns of Heaven tremble, 
the angels cover their faces, allows Him- 
self not only to be adored by us as by the 
shepherds and the wise men of old, but 
deigns even to enter into our bodies. 

The more we consider this fact, the more 
humble should we become. St. John the 
Baptist was sanctified in his mother's 
womb before his birth, and lived in the 
desert the life of an angel rather than that 
of a man. He was called by the Savior 
Himself a prophet and more than a pro- 
phet, the greatest man born of woman; 
and yet the Baptist declared he was not 
worthy to lose the latchet of Christ's shoe. 



THE HOLY EUCHARIST. 147 

And when Christ came to be baptized by 
him, he was filled with astonishment and 
drew back, saying : "I should be baptized by 
Thee and Thou comest to me." (Matthew 
III, 14). 

Since none of us have even a small por- 
tion of the saintliness of St. John, who con- 
sidered himself unworthy to pour a little 
water on the head of our Savior, how much 
more reason have we to humble ourselves, 
since we are to receive His Body and 
Blood? 

St. Peter, on seeing a miracle wrought 
by Christ's words, was amazed and terri- 
fied, and exclaimed: "Lord depart from 
me, for I am a sinner," as if holiness and 
sin could not remain together. 

With how much more truth can we 
not confess that we are sinners, unworthy, 
ignorant, weak and ungrateful. Truly we 
may say with the Centurion : "Lord, I am 
not worthy that Thou shouldst enter under 
my roof." 

Finally, we must approach with senti- 
ments of love. This is the most impor- 
tant, the most necessary, the most fitting 
disposition of all, for Christ is worthy of 



148 THE SACRAMENTS. 

our love and is a true devoted lover of our 
souls. Love can be repaid only by love. 
Love strengthens union. Christ has 
sought and invented the most perfect me- 
dium of union, and we cannot be so un- 
grateful as not to meet him half way. 

It is characteristic of love to love the 
object of one's affections generously and 
with prodigality. So Christ in the Blessed 
Sacrament prompted by His great love 
has given us everything, His Body, His 
Soul and His Divinity, Himself with all 
that He is and all that He has. As the 
sun lights and warms the earth more ef- 
fectively by its own light than by the re- 
flected light from the moon and the stars, 
so Christ in the Blessed Sacrament gives 
His graces more abundantly than by all 
the other Sacraments. 

The desire for Holy Communion is the 
best proof that we have of His love. As 
our Lord says: "Blessed are they who 
hunger and thirst after justice/' that is 
wish to unite themselves with God. The 
Blessed Virgin says in the sublime can- 
ticle of the Magnificat, "He has filled the 
hungry with good things." 



THE HOLY EUCHARIST. 149 

These are the dispositions and senti- 
ments we should have for Holy Commu- 
nion. 

In our preparation for Holy Communion 
and in exciting these dispositions, we 
should follow the advice of St. Francis de 
Sales, who says: "Commence the evening 
before to prepare yourself with many as- 
pirations and sentiments of love, going to 
repose a little earlier, to rise in better sea- 
son. If you wake in the night, at once 
fill your heart and your mouth with some 
pious words, by means of which your soul 
may be prepared to receive the Spouse 
who, waking while you sleep, is prepared 
to load you with a thousand graces and 
favors if, on your part, you are ready to 
receive Him." 




THE HOLY EUCHARIST 

Frequent Communion. 




^w* E have seen that, by divine precept, 
vl/ we must receive Holy Communion 
at least once a year, and that dur- 
ing Easter time. But this is the 
minimum that is expected of us as Cath- 
olics. It is sad that there are some Cath- 
olics so negligent as to receive Holy Com- 
munion but once a year, especially in view 
of the practice of the saints of all ages 
and of the marvellous effects which are 
then produced. There is no means so well 
adapted to restore amongst Catholics the 
happy days of the primitive Church as fre- 
quent Communion. 

The first days of the Church were not 
without some evils, but they were compar- 
atively few and insignificant. But then 
instances of heroic virtues were common. 
It was the golden age of Christianity, and 
the reason is to be found in this practice 
of the primitive Church. 

The first Christians regarded the 



THE HOLY EUCHARIST. 151 

Blessed Sacrament as the daily bread of 
the children of God; they partook of it 
every day, and dreaded nothing so much 
as to be deprived of it. 

This practice Pius X, of holy memory, 
revived and exhorted the faithful to imi- 
tate. 

In fact, before him the Council of Trent 
expressed a desire that all the faithful who 
hear Mass should receive Holy Communion 
not only spiritually but sacramentally. 

The falling off in Holy Communion was 
due, in a great measure, to the teaching 
of the Jansenists, whose errors, although 
condemned and refuted, caused a certain 
coldness in this regard in some parts of 
the Catholic world. Pius X, Pope of the 
Blessed Sacrament, pointed out the ad- 
vantages of daily Communion and urged 
the faithful to practice it. 

Nothing could be more conformable to 
Catholic doctrine than daily Communion. 
But there are those who excuse them- 
selves for one pretext or another. There 
are some whose consciences are over-deli- 
cate and who hold back from motives of 



152 THE SACRAMENTS. 

fear, while there are others in whom there 
is an attachment to sin. 

In one case the fear of God is exagger- 
ated; in the other the love of the world 
holds too great sway. The former abstain 
lest, by approaching too near to the 
majesty of God, they should offend Him, 
and, like the Jews, who came with Judas 
to apprehend our Lord, be struck to the 
earth. The latter do not wish to go to 
Holy Communion because they would 
have to abandon their evil ways and to 
relinquish that which they love too well. 

Those who are restrained by fear from 
Holy Communion say that in order to com- 
municate daily or even frequently they 
should be better than they are. But in or- 
der to be better they must communicate 
of tener. Holy Communion is not a reward 
or a recompense. It is a means, a Sacra- 
ment. God is not unreasonable, and He 
does not expect impossibilities. All that 
is necessary on our part is careful 
preparation, and, of course, freedom from 
mortal sin. 

It is no excuse to say that by frequent 
Communion we become no better, that we 



THE HOLY EUCHARIST. 153 

are always relapsing into the same faults, 
that the effect is lessened by frequency: 
for, by staying away, we become no better ; 
in fact, we become worse. The truth is 
our pride is touched, our patience ex- 
hausted, and we wish to give up 
the struggle. But we must not judge by 
feeling. Holy Communion does not make 
us incapable of sin, but it does preserve us 
from it. 

We eat every day : if we did not eat we 
would die. Even so with Holy Com- 
munion, as St. Ambrose has well said: 
"Every day I sin and every day I need a 
remedy." In the life of St. Frances of 
Rome, we read that our Blessed Lord said 
to the Saint: "Daughter, the faults you 
commit instead of keeping you from Com- 
munion should urge you to it, since that 
is the remedy for them." An early doctor 
of the Church says that he who commu- 
nicates often is more humble than other 
communicants, for he knows and wishes 
to correct his faults. 

As to the effect, it is quite true that the 
imagination is not struck so forcibly, but 
this is not religion. We must judge the 



154 THE SACRAMENTS. 

result as following from the direction of 
the will. St. Alphonsus says : "Do not de- 
ceive yourself by thinking you have more 
devotion when you communicate less fre- 
quently. He who eats seldom has a bet- 
ter appetite, but is not as strong and 
healthy as another who takes his meals 
with regularity." 

Distractions or the fear of becoming too 
familiar with holy things or of scandaliz- 
ing people are not reasons for infrequent 
Communion. Distractions can certainly 
be overcome if they are voluntary. If 
they are involuntary, they are not in the 
least culpable. If by familiarity is meant 
negligence and routine, it is, of course, 
better not to communicate frequently, but 
this can be overcome, for it is wilful. If, 
however, by familiarity we mean intimacy 
or greater confidence in God, frequent 
Communion is not something to be feared. 

As for scandalizing people, we must not 
pay attention to mere human respect. If 
we do our best and do not make frequent 
Communions a pretext for thinking our- 
selves superior to others and neglecting 



THE HOLY EUCHARIST. 155 

our other duties, we have no need to mind 
what others may say or think of us. 

If we were to examine all the excuses 
that are offered, we would find that 
in many cases, the real reason would lie 
in the fact that those who make these 
excuses do not really wish to communicate 
more frequently. They would have to 
change their lives, and they could not en- 
joy the world as they do now. They wish 
something of God but they will not take 
the means. They do not wish to become 
perfect. They are like those to whom our 
Lord refers in the parable of the King's 
Supper who made excuses for absenting 
themselves. 




THE HOLY EUCHARIST : 

Thanksgiving After Holy 

Communion. 




I NE of the principal reasons," says 
St. Teresa, "why so many receive 
7f§M so little profit from Communion, 
even frequent, is that, after hav- 
ing received this Divine Guest they neglect 
to entertain Him, to thank Him for His 
coming, to take advantage of His pres- 
ence." 

"Entertain our Savior cordially," says 
this saint, "negotiate with Him about the 
affairs of your soul. Our Savior loves to 
be thus treated by us. Negligence at this 
time, when not a moment should be lost, 
may prove fatal." 

These wise and devout words strike at 
an abuse all too common among the faith- 
ful. It is the height of ingratitude. No 
one would dare to leave the presence of 
the great and powerful of earth in this un- 
seemly way, and yet Catholics depart from 
the presence of the Lord of Hosts hastily 



THE HOLY EUCHARIST. 157 

and abruptly, after being honored by the 
greatest gift bestowed on mankind. 

Even before Mass is finished impatience 
may be seen in the eyes and movements of 
those who have just taken the Lord into 
their bosoms. There are of course reasons 
for haste in special cases, but only seldom. 
Hardly has the bowed head been raised 
from the pew-rail after a short and 
thoughtless thanksgiving, when they are 
impatient for the street and the things of 
the world. Once the Holy Sacrifice is over, 
there is a rush for the door, and alas ! the 
very leaders in that flight from the Real 
Presence of our Lord, are very often they 
who have the strongest reasons for re- 
maining in grateful prayer. 

What has the world done for us, or what 
can it promise us that we are impatient of 
the society of our God and so eager for 
passing interests, friends and acquaint- 
ances ! 

Well may it be said with Jeremias that : 
"Heaven and earth should stand amazed 
that the people should leave the springs 
of living water to slake their thirst from 



158 THE SACRAMENTS. 

broken and muddy cisterns." Our friends 
and acquaintances, even business asso- 
ciates would justly resent such conduct. 
Thoughtlessness is doubtless responsible 
for this evil and thankless custom, and we 
cannot too soon take thought of who God 
is and what we are, and change it for the 
better. 

The story of Judas horrifies us, the first 
follower of Christ to make a bad Com- 
munion. We remember his despairing re- 
morse, his awful punishment, the execra- 
tion in which his name is held. 

St. John Chrysostom makes on that pas- 
sage in the Gospels a comment which 
should leave a warning impression upon 
all. He says that Judas communicated 
with all the other Apostles, but while the 
others remained in their places devout, 
softened and surprised at the great proof 
of the Lord's affection for them, Judas 
alone made haste to depart. He had re- 
ceived the grace of the Holy Eucharist. 
He had heard the warning to him that 
came from the lips of Christ, but he went 
out immediately. The devil entered into 
him and he betrayed his Lord. What a 



THE HOLY EUCHARIST. 159 

terrible lesson there is in that haste to 
leave the presence of God. St. John Chrys- 
ostom significantly remarks: "They imi- 
tate Judas who, having communicated, de- 
part from the church without returning 
thanks, without making a thanksgiving." 

We should, when it is at all practicable, 
spend at least a quarter of an hour in 
thanksgiving, making acts of faith and 
adoration, thanksgiving and praise to our 
Lord. We should employ this holy inter- 
val in offering ourselves wholly to Him 
who gives Himself entirely to us, in telling 
Him all our necessities and griefs, and in 
begging for ourselves and others the 
graces of which we and they stand in need, 
repeating what Jacob said to the Angel of 
the Lord : "I will not let thee go until thou 
hast blessed me." 

What an opportunity of a lifetime, what 
a succession of opportunities ! The Omni- 
potent, the Redeemer of mankind, the Holy 
Spirit that guides the Church are within 
us in the Holy Eucharist. "Ask and you 
shall receive" the Lord generously says to 
us, and His promise holds especially good 
on such happy occasions. 



160 THE SACRAMENTS. 

Christ has died for us ; He has given us 
life, spiritual and physical, He has even 
given Himself to us as food and life to our 
souls. Can any thanksgiving after Holy 
Communion be too long to express our 
gratitude for these great gifts ? 

Jesus, entering the womb of Mary, made 
her the Temple of the Living God. When 
she went to the house of Zachary His com- 
ing presanctified John the Baptist. When 
years later He entered the house of Peter, 
the disciple's mother-in-law was cured of 
her sickness. His presence in the house of 
Jairus brought the man's daughter back 
from the dead. Zaccheus welcoming Him 
was from a sinner made a saint. His visit 
to the tomb of Lazarus brought Lazarus 
back to life, made Mary and Martha His 
most ardent disciples. 

So will His coming into our hearts bring 
spiritual life and blessings immeasureable, 
if we receive Him worthily and with that 
thankfulness which is His right and our 
highest duty. He will give our souls 
strength and energy, an undying attach- 
ment to His law, to His Person, an enthu- 



THE HOLY EUCHARIST. 161 

siasm as of fire for the Coming of His 
Kingdom. When a Catholic receives Holy 
Communion worthily and with devotion 
and remains in God's church for the 
thanksgiving which is His due, He says to 
us and our Household, as He did to Zac- 
cheus (Luke XIX) : "Today salvation has 
come to this house from God." 




THE HOLY EUCHARIST : The 
Sacrifice of The Mass. 




v^FJE have considered the Holy Eu- 

vly charist as a Sacrament, and it now 

llllj remains for us briefly to treat it as 

a Sacrifice; for it is not only the 

Bread of Life for all the faithful, but the 

principal act of worship of Christianity. 

By a sacrifice is meant the offering to 
God, the destruction or change of some 
outward and sensible thing by a proper 
minister to acknowledge God's supreme 
dominion over life and death. It is clear, 
then, that a sacrifice can be offered to God 
alone. As an offering, sacrifice comes un- 
der the category of religious actions, such 
as genuflections, incense, prayer and 
praise. As an outward sign, it has some- 
thing in common with the Sacraments. 

Its distinctive quality, however, lies in 
the fact that the thing offered signifies 
by its destruction the supreme dominion 
of God and acknowledges that the wor- 
shipper owes his whole being to God and 



THE HOLY EUCHARIST. 163 

is ready to offer Him his life. In token of 
this, he offers the life or being of some- 
thing else, not that the destruction of 
something else which is not himself is nec- 
essary, for the idea of sacrifice is even 
better fulfilled by one's own life, as in the 
case of the Sacrifice of the Cross. A de- 
struction, however, or such a change as 
shall be the same as destruction is essen- 
tial. Hence, in all the ancient sacrifices, 
the thing offered was destroyed. 

Divine institution is necessary for true 
and effective sacrifice. The victim and 
the priest must be chosen by God, as St. 
Paul says (Heb. V, 4) : "For no man doth 
take the honor to himself but he that is 
called by God as Aaron was." Sacrifice 
is a necessary part of true religion. All 
other outward acts by which we testify 
our respect for one another, such as un- 
covering the head, bowing, kneeling or the 
like, are daily used towards men as well as 
towards God. 

The exterior worship of God demands 
that there should be some particular form 
or rite to express the sovereign homage 
which we give to the Deity. This is 



164 THE SACRAMFNTS 

sacrifice. All nations that acknowledge 
a supreme being, true or false, consider 
sacrifice as essential to the worship due to 
him. Hence, by the light of nature itself 
it is regarded as a necessary part of reli- 
gion. 

From the beginning of the world sacri- 
fice has been offered by the holy servants 
of God as an essential part of their reli- 
gion and accepted by Him as an agreeable 
homage from their hands. Almighty God, 
in revealing to His chosen people the man- 
ner in which they should worship Him, ex- 
pressly instituted various sacrifices. These 
He so strictly claimed as the worship due 
to Himself alone that He commanded the 
person to be destroyed who should dare 
to give it to another. 

Religion may be defined as the spiritual 
relation between God and man. All reli- 
gion may be summed up in two points: 
sacrifice and the Sacraments. God, hav- 
ing established an external religion, in- 
stituted visible channels of grace; it was 
becoming that He should also establish an 
external means of the creature's approach 
to Him ; that it may return, come back to 



THE HOLY EUCHARIST. 165 

Him. Man, by his very nature, tends to- 
wards God by his intelligence and his will, 
and this he does partially and relatively, 
or unreservedly and absolutely. 

Various sacrifices are mentioned in the 
Old Testament. Who has not read of the 
offerings of Abel and Cain, of Melchise- 
dech "bringing forth bread and wine, for 
he was priest of the most high God" and 
of Aaron, who was high priest during the 
Exodus of the children of Israel from 
Egypt? God chose Moses to be Mediator 
between Himself and the people, and 
through him made known His law. This 
law sets forth two classes of sacrifices : the 
bloody sacrifice, when animals were slain, 
and the unbloody, when flour, bread and 
wine were offered up. 

God enjoined these upon His people that 
they might never forget that He was their 
sovereign Lord, to whom they owed every- 
thing, and to keep before their minds His 
promise of the Redeemer. It was by virtue 
of the future Sacrifice of the Cross that 
their sins were forgiven. 

These rites, by divine injunction 
obligatory on the chosen people, were 



166 THE SACRAMENTS. 

abrogated with the coming of Christ, as 
they were only figures and reminders of 
the supreme Sacrifice of Christ on Calvary. 
They passed away, as the Old Law gave 
place to the New. 

The Sacrifice of the New Law is that of 
Jesus Christ the Son of God, who offered 
Himself on the Cross to His heavenly 
Father for sinners (Heb. IX., 14). By this 
offering of infinite worth Christ redeemed 
mankind and gained for us grace and sal- 
vation. This Sacrifice was infinitely per- 
fect and satisfactory because Christ was 
God, and "by his own blood entered once 
into the holies, having obtained eternal re- 
demption." (Heb. IX., 12). 

As the sacrifices of the Old Law, though 
but figures, were enjoined upon the people, 
so our Lord instituted the Sacrifice of the 
New Law, a continuation of the Sacrifice 
of the Cross, to be a perpetual, daily offer- 
ing of Himself upon the altar of God. Thus 
is Christ ever present in the Holy Sacrifice 
of the Mass, that we may participate in its 
graces and blessings. 

The Old Testament contains many plain 
references and figures of the Sacrifice of 



THE HOLY EUCHARIST. 167 

the Mass. There is the action of Melchise- 
dech, already noted, and the prophecy of 
Malachias. The Psalms also bear witness 
(CIX) : 'Thou art a priest forever 
according to the order of Melchisedech," 
showing the perpetuity of Holy Mass. It 
is prefigured in the bread and wine offered 
by Melchisedech, for in the fullness of 
time, Christ at the L<ast Supper instituted 
the Sacrifice of the Mass under the ap- 
pearances of bread and wine. 

The prophet Malachias (I., 10-11) indi- 
cates it in a striking sentence to the Jews 
of his time: "I have no pleasure in you, 
saith the Lord of Hosts, and I will not re- 
ceive a gift from your hand ; for, from the 
rising of the sun even to the going down, 
my name is great among the Gentiles, and 
in every place there is a sacrifice, and there 
is offered in my name a clean oblation." 
What could give a plainer reference to the 
sacrifice of the New Law, the Holy Mass, 
which goes on without interruption 
throughout the whole day in every part of 
the world ? 

The story of Christ's institution of the 
Sacrifice of the Mass is told in a most clear 



168 THE SACRAMENTS. 

and touching manner in the Gospel account 
of the Last Supper. On that occasion, He 
offered Himself to His heavenly Father 
under the appearances of bread and wine 
and commanded His Apostles thenceforth 
to do the same in commemoration of Him. 

The Last Supper was the first Sacrifice 
of the Mass and was essentially the same 
as that which is offered up daily on our 
altars. It is the perpetual sacrifice of the 
New Testament. Through the priest, 
Christ offers Himself in an unbloody man- 
ner under the appearances of bread and 
wine. The only difference between the 
Sacrifice of the Cross and that of the Mass 
is in the manner of the offering — the lat- 
ter is made in an unbloody manner. There 
is the same High Priest and the same Vic- 
tim, Christ Himself. 

That the Mass has been celebrated from 
Apostolic times is clear from the words of 
St. Paul, who writes in his epistle to the 
Hebrews, XIIL, 10: "We (Christians) 
have an altar, whereof they have no power 
to eat who serve the tabernacle," that is to 
say, the Jews. An altar supposes a sacri- 
fice, which must be the one instituted by 



THE HOLY EUCHARIST. 169 

Christ. The testimony of the ages shows 
the existence of the Mass from earliest 
times. 

To go fully into the ceremonies, the ends 
and graces of the Holy Sacrifice is beside 
our purpose. Such a treatise must neces- 
sarily be lengthy, and does not properly 
come within our scope. 

On Calvary Christ was the Victim for 
the whole world. In the Mass He is the 
Victim for us in particular and for every 
individual among us. 

The Holy Sacrifice is the apex of Christ- 
ian worship, the most pious and real, 
wherein truly God is adored in spirit and 
in truth. 

The Mass is the ever recurring lesson of 
humility ; the humility of God who for us 
and our salvation debased Himself to our 
frame, the humility of God's servants who 
recognize in the Victim on the altar an in- 
vitation to confess their own sins and 
weaknesses, our helplessness before the 
majesty of the Divine. It is a living me- 
morial and reminder of God's infinite love 
for man. As in the Sacrifice on the Cross 
He revealed that love by the giving up of 



170 THE SACRAMENTS. 

His only begotten Son, so in the Mass He 
continues to show His transcendent gener- 
osity. As a consequence the Mass is an 
urgent exhortation to devout thanksgiving 
and a reminder of that charity of which 
St. Paul speaks, and a source of hope of a 
happy eternity with Him. 




PENANCE: Its Necessity. 




y^ HE Old Testament records how in- 
^J flexible was the wrath of God to- 
wards sinners ; in His treatment of 
the fallen angels, toward our First 
Parents, towards the thousands who sinned 
against him and whose punishment is set 
down in that inexorable record. Once sin 
had been committed, reconciliation with 
God was long and painful and demanded 
from the repentant sinner great individual 
effort and contrition. For the most part 
mankind was left to its own unaided 
efforts. 

Without enlarging at this time on the 
marvellous victory for mankind that 
Christ gained upon the Cross, we may well 
be stricken with awe, like the Disciples on 
the day of the Transfiguration, at the mag- 
nificence of that victory over sin. 

"Behold I bring you good tidings of 
great joy" said the Angels on the first 
Christmas morning. The same great mes- 
sage to mankind rang out from Calvary 



172 THE SACRAMENTS. 

when our Savior paid for us the Great 
Price. 

Man is born into the world with the 
stain of Original Sin upon him, and this 
with all sins committed before Baptism, is 
taken away by Baptism. But it is in the 
long journey, the fearful life-long war, 
from the time when human beings come 
to the age of reason until death, that 
temptation is let loose upon us, that the 
passions rebel, that the world allures, that 
the soul of man is surrounded by spiritual 
perils. 

Our blessed Lord knew mankind in all 
its phases, its weakness, its proneness to 
sin, its pitiable condition, and out of the 
depths of His boundless love for the chil- 
dren of men, He instituted Penance, the 
Sacrament of mercy and forgiveness, a 
Sacrament not given to the holiest and 
greatest of men under the Old Law, but ex- 
tended to us so graciously and freely — 
merely the telling of our sins to one of His 
duly authorized priests with due contri- 
tion, and receiving in turn complete for- 
giveness and His friendship. 

Christ foresaw what would be the lot of 



PENANCE. 17S 



man after He had redeemed him and pro- 
vided for the battle against sin with the 
bounty of God. St. Peter once asked Him if 
it were enough for one man to forgive an- 
other seven times — one man to another — 
and the Lord replied: "Yea, and seventy 
times seven times." But when it came to 
the forgiveness of man by his offended 
God, even that great charity did not sat- 
isfy His love. Forgiveness was to have no 
limits. He forgives man as often as he i& 
sincerely sorry, asks pardon and promises 
to sin no more. 

In view of the great boon which Christ 
gave man in Baptism, it seems almost im- 
possible that he should turn from his Bene- 
factor, lose His friendship and associate 
himself with His enemies. Yet, unfortu- 
nately, man falls again and again. Christ 
knew man's nature, his fickleness, and 
weakness, and in loving pity instituted the 
Sacrament of Penance. 

There is another quality of mortal sin, 
which makes it terrible and immeasurably 
hateful in the sight of God — its deliberate 
malice. Even among men the hardest of- 
fence to forgive is that committed deliber- 



174 THE SACRAMENTS. 

ately and with malice. And mortal sin is 
deliberate malice against our beneficent 
and loving God. But, through the bound- 
less merits of Him who became man "for 
us men and for our salvation/' who suf- 
fered that awful Passion, who died in 
agony on the Cross between two thieves, 
the same God who punished sinful man so 
implacably from the Fall to the Christian 
era, forgives this malice and receives 
us again and again into His friendship. 

In the Sacrament of Penance the priest 
is the minister of God, empowered by 
Christ with the faculty of absolving. Pen- 
ance deals exclusively with sins committed 
after Baptism, offences done by those who 
have knowledge, reflection and due consent 
of the will. When the penitent is rightly 
prepared and confesses entirely, sincerely 
and plainly, the words of the priest are the 
decree of Christ's forgiveness. Christ 
speaks through the mouth of the priest, 
exercising the power given by the Lord 
when He gave the Apostles the power of 
binding and loosing, and in them and 
through them to every priest in lawful suc- 
cession to the end of time. 



PENANCE. 175 



For more than fifteen hundred years 
from the date of that great commission 
of mercy and forgiveness, no one denied 
the existence and power of the Sacrament 
of Penance. But in the Sixteenth Century 
there arose men who for their own pur- 
poses and mainly because they were rebels 
against Christ and His law, put forth the 
preposterous statement that no priest, 
since he is a mere man, can forgive sins. 
They made much use of that sneering 
query of Christ's enemies in His pub- 
lic life : "Who but God can forgive sins ?" 

'TKe whole Christian world for fifteen 
centuries had known that the power to 
forgive sins is Christ's; that Christ gave 
this, His power, to the Apostles and their 
successors in the priesthood until the end 
of time, just as He gave the power to cele- 
brate the Sacrifice of the Mass to the Apos- 
tles and their successors until the end of 
time, as long as there were faithful on 
earth. The Church was not instituted for 
those who lived in Christ's time merely ; it 
was like the Redemption for all men, the 
universal dispensation of the New Law. So 



176 THE SACRAMENTS. 

the priest in the tribunal of Penance pro- 
nounces a real absolution of sins because 
he is Christ's accredited representative, 
not for the reason that he is a human be- 
ing, but because Christ invested him per- 
sonally with that mighty spiritual power 
as he invested the Apostles with it twenty 
centuries ago. 




PENANCE: The Power To 
Forgive Sins. 




W 



HEN we seriously consider all that 
Christ has done for mankind, we 
cannot put aside the thought of the 
ingratitude that has been the only 
return for His goodness towards us. It 
seems incredible that man, once he had 
been purified in the saving waters of Bap- 
tism and made a friend of God, a brother 
of Christ and heir to Heaven, would turn 
from the source of all grace, and join the 
enemies of the Most High. 

If there were among men the gratitude 
that should exist, there would be no need 
of the Sacrament of Penance. But unfor- 
tunately man soon forgets his benefactor ; 
he tires of restraint, and takes the easiest 
way, which leads to perdition. Christ's yoke 
he finds at times to be galling, and he de- 
liberately casts it from him by mortal sin. 
Happily for him Christ's charity knows no 
bounds, and His knowledge of poor fallen 
human nature takes account of man's 



178 THE SACRAMENTS. 

weakness, of his proneness to things of the 
senses, and of the difficulties that beset 
him on all sides. 

And in His love for man, He prepares a 
Sacrament which would blot out the sins 
committed after Baptism, and would en- 
able man to recover grace and friendship 
with God. He entrusts to His ministers the 
power to forgive in His name all sins into 
which man might fall after Baptism. This 
power he gave to His Apostles, when after 
His resurrection, He breathed upon them 
and said: "As the Father hath sent me, I 
also send you. Receive ye the Holy Ghost; 
whose sins you shall forgive they are for- 
given them; whose sins you shall retain, 
they are retained" John XX, 21-23. 

This power was something special; it 
was not a commission to remit sin by the 
Sacrament of Baptism, for there is no men- 
tion of Baptism here. Baptism had already 
been instituted, while in the passage 
quoted Christ gives the Holy Ghost for a 
special end — the forgiving of sins. 

By Baptism, moreover, sins are not re- 
tained. Christ's words refer to all sinners, 
consequently also to those who have been 



PENANCE. 179 



baptized. Baptism however, cannot be ad- 
ministered more than once. 

It cannot be said that, by the words of 
St. John's gospel, Christ commissioned His 
Apostles to declare to the faithful that 
their sins were forgiven them if they were 
truly contrite. Such a mission would be as 
useless as it would be ineffectual. If by 
his own acts the penitent had already ob- 
tained forgiveness of his sins, the priest 
would have no occasion to forgive or re- 
tain. The ministry of the priest would be 
an empty form. 

The power given to the Apostles has all 
the marks of a Sacrament ; there is the out- 
ward sign, in the act of absolution ; grace, 
for, by the remission of sin, sanctifying 
grace is communicated to the soul ; and the 
institution of Christ contained in the pas- 
sage above quoted. It cannot be doubted, 
that Christ intended, by the words rec- 
orded by St. John, to institute a new Sac- 
rament by which sins committed after 
Baptism were to be remitted. If He did 
not, we should be no better off than the 
people of the Old Law, for if we sin after 
Baptism, it would still be necessary for us 



180 THE SACRAMENTS. 

to elicit acts of perfect contrition. That 
He did institute the Sacrament of Penance 
in these words has been the universal be- 
lief of the Church. It is a matter of Faith. 
The Council of Trent says so explicitly 
(Sess, XIV, Chap. 1.) : 

"The Lord then principally instituted the 
Sacrament of Penance, when, being raised 
from the dead, He breathed upon His Dis- 
ciples, saying: 'Receive ye the Holy Ghost, 
whose sins you shall forgive, they are for- 
given them, and whose sins you shall re- 
tain, they are retained/ By which action 
so signal and words so clear the consent 
of all the Fathers has ever understood 
(Can. Ill) that the power of forgiving and 
retaining sins was communicated to the 
Apostles and their lawful successors for 
the reconciling of the faithful who have 
fallen after Baptism. 

"And the Catholic Church with great 
reason repudiated and condemned as here- 
tics the Novatians who of old obstinately 
denied that power of forgiving. Where- 
fore, this holy synod, approving of and re- 
ceiving as most true this meaning of those 
words of our Lord, condemns the fanciful 



PENANCE. 181 



interpretation of those who, in opposition 
to the institution of this Sacrament, 
falsely wrest those words to the power of 
preaching the word of God and of an- 
nouncing the Gospel of Christ." 

The power conferred upon the Apostles 
to forgive sins committed after Baptism 
did not cease with the Apostles, but was 
transmitted as part of their ministry to 
the Bishops and priests of the Church, who 
exercised this divine inheritance by hear- 
ing the confession of sins and granting 
pardon for them as ministers of God and 
in His name. 

It is clear that Christ intended that this 
power should continue and should be exer- 
cised in the Church for all time. This in- 
tention is manifested in the mission He 
gave His Apostles when He said, "as the 
Father hath sent Me, I also send you." 
Christ came as the Redeemer of all man- 
kind and as long as there would be sinners 
who need reconciliation with God there 
must be those who have the power to re- 
concile. 

It has always been believed by the Uni- 
versal Church that the power of forgiving 



182 THE SACRAMENTS. 

sins was not an extraordinary gift limited 
to the early ages of the Church but was 
an ordinary power of the priesthood of 
Christ. The Bishops and priests of the 
Church, as successors of the Apostles, have 
inherited this power and they have always 
exercised it from the beginning. 




PENANCE : Forgives All Sins. 




B~ ~"|LL sins committed after Baptism can 
be forgiven in the Sacrament of 
WHMm Penance. The words by which 
Christ conferred the power of for- 
giving sin are general and admit no ex- 
ception. "Whose sins you shall forgive they 
are forgiven them." The Church has al- 
ways taught that if the penitent is prop- 
erly disposed, every sin without exception 
may be removed by the Sacrament of Pen- 
ance. And this is according to right rea- 
son, for were a sin not forgivable such 
an impossibility would exist either on the 
part of God or on the part of the sinner. 
But who is there who will dare to set limits 
to the power and goodness of God ? Cer- 
tainly God can remit sin; the Creator can 
forgive His creature; the Lord His ser- 
vant. And He is willing to do so, provided 
the sinner come to Him in humble sorrow 
and ask pardon for his offence. He Him- 
self has promised that no matter how 
black a man's soul may be on account of 
sin, it shall be washed whiter than snow. 



184 THE SACRAMENTS. 

The impossibility then can only be on the 
part of the sinner who resists God's 
grace. 

The Sacrament of Penance is the ordi- 
nary means of salvation for all those who 
have fallen into mortal sin after being bap- 
tized; for it is instituted by God for the 
remission of sins which render salvation 
impossible. Its ministers have received 
power not only to remit but also to retain 
sins and their judgment is ratified in 
heaven. 

Penance is a means instituted by Christ 
for the forgiveness of sins committed after 
Baptism, just as Baptism is intended to 
remove original sin and all actual sins com- 
mitted before Baptism. As the unbaptized 
cannot obtain any forgiveness without 
Baptism, so those who commit grievous 
sins after Baptism receive pardon only 
through the Sacrament of Penance. This 
is the teaching of the Council of Trent 
and is a matter of faith. 

The Sacrament of Penance is the ordi- 
nary means of salvation for all who fall in- 
to mortal sins after baptism, but it can be 
supplied by perfect contrition which pro- 



PENANCE. 185 



ceeds from perfect love of God and in- 
cludes the will to do all that is necessary 
for salvation. It includes, therefore, the 
wish to receive the Sacrament of Penance 
if it were possible. Mortal sins which are 
thus forgiven, however, must be submitted 
to the tribunal of penance. 

Besides remitting sin, Penance remits 
the eternal punishment due to them. It 
restores sanctifying grace and increases it. 

The power of forgiving sins is a judicial 
one and in its exercise demands a judicial 
act, for forgiving and retaining, loosing 
and binding are judicial acts ; consequently 
the Apostles and their successors are 
judges. Hence, in the administering of 
the Sacrament of Penance the Church ob- 
serves a certain judicial form in giving ab- 
solution or its refusal, satisfaction or pun- 
ishment. 

In order to pass sentence the judge 
must know the case, which in this instance 
is sin. He must, therefore, know the sins 
of the penitent, which implies, except in 
extraordinary cases, that he must learn 
them from the penitent himself; for 
sins are for the most part secret, and 



186 THE SACRAMENTS. 

thoughts and desires can be learned only 
by self -accusation. 

A judge is to render a decision in pro- 
portion to the offence; consequently he 
must know what the offence is. It is 
but natural to conclude that Christ Him- 
self intended that the penitent should ac- 
cuse himself. What we infer from reason 
is confirmed by tradition which through- 
out the ages in both Eastern and Western 
Churches shows that Confession has al- 
ways been in use in the Church of God and 
has been considered necessary for the re- 
mission of sin. This is a matter of faith, 
for the Council of Trent has defined the 
doctrine of the Church on Confession 
against the reformers of the sixteenth 
century, "if anyone deny that sacramental 
Confession is of divine institution or that 
it is necessary for salvation, let him be 
anathema." 

Our Lord, in instituting the Sacrament 
of Penance, conferred on the priest 
through the Apostles everything neces- 
sary for its highest usefulness to the sin- 
ner and for the salvation of souls, and no 
quality more strongly disposes erring 



PENANCE. 187 



human beings to absolute sincerity than 
the fact that, under the seal of confession, 
their faults are a matter between their 
merciful God and themselves. This confi- 
dence should certainly be fostered by a 
Sacrament instituted for all humanity, for 
"He knoweth our frame." 

There is always a singular mercifulness, 
a universal fitness, a divine beauty and in- 
sight into human nature in God's institu- 
tions under the New Law. Penance is a 
monument of divine forgiveness and love 
of God for His children. Besides the union 
of faith, it supplies a union of the members 
of the Church. It is heart speaking to 
heart, binding the faithful to their confes- 
sors by the cords of Adam. 

Far from being the odious and unnatural 
thing confession is thought by Protest- 
ants, it is one of the greatest sources of 
joy and consolation to the Christian soul. 
Converts have recorded again and again 
the wonder and inestimable benefits of 
confession to them individually after the 
desolation and loneliness of the various 
sects. 

It is of the greatest benefit to the indi- 



188 THE SACRAMENTS. 

vidual even from a natural standpoint. 
Every sincere Catholic knows and appre- 
ciates the relief that comes when the sins, 
whatever they be, are lifted from the soul 
and the balm and encouragement of the 
priest are imparted, healing and strength- 
ening both. 

Confession is not merely a protection 
from sin; it also brings us numerous 
graces. Its value to the family and society 
at large can not be estimated. It works 
for morality and good order ; it influences 
men and women for the right as no other 
agency can. It brings home to the human 
heart the continual miracle of Christ's love 
for mankind and His pity for human weak- 
ness and frailty. Not content with re- 
deeming man upon the Cross and applying 
the fruits of that Redemption in the Holy 
Sacrifice of the Mass through the world, 
not content with raising him to the super- 
natural life by Baptism, as the Good Shep- 
herd, He seeks His lost sheep through the 
Church He established, and brings them 
back to the fold in the Sacrament of 
Penance. 



PENANCE : The Acts of The 
Penitent; Contrition. 




y+~> HE Sacrament of Penance consists 
\*J of the absolution by the priest and 
the acts of the penitent, which are 
contrition, confession and satisfac- 
tion. The former we have treated at 
length in a previous instruction, and it 
now remains for us to consider the peni- 
tent's acts, the first of which is contri- 
tion. Contrition is defined by the Council 
of Trent, Sess. XIV., Can. 4, as a sorrow 
of mind and a detestation of sin that has 
been committed, with the purpose of not 
sinning again. 

St. Thomas in speaking of contrition 
says that the beginning of all sin is pride, 
by which man following his senses turns 
away from the divine Commandments, and 
therefore that which destroys sin must 
turn man away from sins and back to God. 
In other words, it must make man aban- 
don all affection for sin. 
In order to procure the remission of 



190 THE SACRAMENTS. 

his sins the sinner must have contrition 
for them. It is not necessary that he 
should detest them precisely with a view 
of removing them ; it is sufficient that he 
be sorry for them for some supernatural 
motive. 

Contrition is a necessary condition for 
the remission of sin. This is clear from 
many passages in the Old and New Testa- 
ment. "Now, therefore/' saith the Lord, 
"be converted to Me with all your heart, 
in fasting and in weeping and in mourn- 
ing. And rend your hearts, and not your 
garments, and turn to the Lord, your God ; 
for He is gracious and merciful, patient 
and rich in mercy and ready to repent of 
the evil" Joel XI, 12-13. "Unless you 
shall do penance you shall all likewise 
perish" Luke XIII., 3. "Be penitent, 
therefore, and be converted, that your sins 
may be blotted out" Acts III., 19. This 
fact is also confirmed by the writings of 
the Fathers and the canons of the Coun- 
cil of Trent. 

Reason itself seems to demand this, for 
sin is an injury to God, and the servant 
who offends his master, or the friend who 



PENANCE. 191 



injures a friend, if he wishes to obtain 
pardon, should be sorry for his fault. If he 
is not, pardon is justly denied him. If, 
therefore, without sorrow man cannot ob- 
tain pardon from his fellowman, it seems 
quite reasonable that God should demand 
contrition from the sinner. 

Contrition is necessary not only as a dic- 
tate of reason, but also on account of a 
direct precept of God, for a virtue 
which is necessary for obtaining sal- 
vation is without doubt commanded by 
God; and this conclusion is found in the 
words of the Holy Scripture which com- 
mands sinners to do penance. 

Contrition in order to obtain forgiveness 
of sins must contain sorrow and a detesta- 
tion of sins committed. 

Detestation is an act of the will by which 
a sinner wishes that his sin had not been 
committed. It is not a mere wish but an 
efficacious desire which removes all affec- 
tion for sin. It is a hatred for sin and a 
keen regret that it has been committed. It 
is an act of the free will, while sorrow in 
itself is not free inasmuch as it does not 
depend on free will. Sin is something that 



192 THE SACRAMENTS. 

is past and a man can exercise free will 
in regard to it only in hating and despising 
it. Detestation only is not sufficient. There 
must be sorrow and this sorrow adds to 
detestation sadness which considers the 
evil of sin as something present. 

The blessed in heaven detest sin but 
have no sorrow, for sin is something past 
to them. On earth, however, sin is al- 
ways in some way present because it is 
either not forgiven or it is doubtful if it is 
forgiven or its effects still remain. There- 
fore, he who detests sin must necessarily 
be sorry for his own sin. Sorrow and de- 
testation are not two distinct acts but con- 
stitute one moral act. 

The third element of contrition is the 
purpose of not sinning again. This reso- 
lution cannot be separated from sorrow 
and detestation, for a sinner cannot be 
said to detest and hate his sin if he is in- 
different about committing sin in the fu- 
ture. The sinner who asks pardon of God 
for an injury done to Him and is at the 
same time ready to offend Him again, does 
Him a new injury. 

The sorrow that we should have for our 



PENANCE. 193 



sins should be interior, supernatural, uni- 
versal and sovereign. It should be inte- 
rior; it should come from the heart and 
not merely from the lips. The priest may 
be deceived by external signs but God, 
who sees the heart is not deceived. Again 
contrition must proceed from the source 
which begot sin and this was the heart or 
the will. It should be supernatural, that 
is prompted by the grace of God and ex- 
cited by motives which spring from faith. 
In other words, we should be sorry because 
God has made known to us the malice of 
sin ; because it is displeasing to God. Our 
sorrow should be universal, that it, it 
should extend to all mortal sins without ex- 
ception, for all mortal sins, even those 
omitted in confession through forgetful- 
ness, gravely offend God and deprive us of 
divine friendship. It should be sovereign, 
that is, we should detest sin more than 
any other evil in the world. Otherwise the 
sinner would be prepared to commit sin 
to avoid some other evil. 

Contrition, as we have seen, is neces- 
sary for obtaining remission of our sins. 
But what kind of contrition is necessary ? 



194 THE SACRAMENTS. 

Must it be perfect as was required in the 
Old Law ? By perfect contrition we mean 
that which fills us with sorrow and hatred 
for sin because it offends God, who is in- 
finitely good in Himself and worthy of all 
love. Imperfect contrition, or attrition as 
it is also called, is that by which we hate 
what offends God because by it we lose 
heaven and deserve hell or because sin is so 
hateful in itself. 

Since contrition by its very nature tends 
to remove sin, that contrition is perfect 
which of itself is capable of doing this. 
The internal perfection of the act of any 
virtue depends upon the perfection of the 
motive. Now there are two motives of 
contrition, the goodness of God in itself, 
which is the object of charity, and the 
good of a rational creature, which leads us 
to detest sin either on account of the fault 
itself or on account of the penalty. The 
latter proceeds from fear or hope; the 
former considers the evil either as an in- 
jury to God Himself, and then the sorrow 
proceeds from love, or as against reason, 
in which case the sorrow may be elicited 



PENANCE. 195 



from motives of other virtues. 

Contrition perfected by charity always 
remits sin although the Sacrament of Pen- 
ance be not actually received. This is 
gathered from various passages of the Old 
and New Testament: "I love them that 
love Me," Prov. VIII, 17. "He that loveth 
Me shall be loved of my Father ; and I will 
love him and manifest myself to Him." 

In the Old Law there must have been 
some contrition which infallibly remitted 
sins, for we know that sin was pardoned. 
This contrition could have been only per- 
fect contrition which surely has not lost its 
efficiency in the New Law. This is con- 
firmed by the Fathers of the Church and 
by the teachings of the Council of Trent. 
Perfect contrition which of itself is cap- 
able of remitting sins requires no deter- 
mined grade of intensity or duration of 
time. 

In the Old Law perfect contrition was 
necessary for the remission of sin. In 
the New Law attrition is sufficient with 
the Sacrament of Penance. This is the 
teaching of the universal Church, and de- 
fined by the Council of Trent. For pen- 



196 THE SACRAMENTS. 

ance is a Sacrament instituted by Christ 
and elevates by its own power the sinner 
into a state of grace. But if perfect con- 
trition were necessary the Sacrament 
would not accomplish its end, for by per- 
fect contrition the sins would be forgiven 
before absolution which would then never 
be efficacious. 

Since, then, God has rendered the way 
back to Him so easy after straying away 
from His grace, we ought to seek to find 
Him and to show our appreciation of His 
goodness. If, unfortunately, we fall into 
mortal sin, we should take advantage of 
this great Sacrament to repent and to seek 
again the friendship and love of God. 




PENANCE : The Acts of The 
Penitent; Confession. 





HFylONFESSION is the telling of our sins 
jVAj to a duly authorized priest for the 
l&i purpose of obtaining forgiveness. 
The necessity of Confession follows 
from the very nature of the Sacrament, 
which consists in the absolution by the 
priest and the acts of the penitent. In or- 
der to absolve from sin the priest must 
know what the sins are, for the power he 
has is judicial and its exercise a judicial 
act. Since the judgment of the priest deals 
to a great extent with internal thoughts 
and desires which can be learned only by 
self -accusation, it follows that Christ in in- 
stituting the Sacrament of Penance must 
have intended self -accusation. 

Confession must be humble, sincere and 
entire. It is humble when we accuse our- 



198 THE SACRAMENTS. 

selves of all our sins with a deep sense of 
shame and sorrow for having offended 
God. It is sincere when we tell our sins 
honestly and truthfully, neither exagger- 
ating nor excusing them. Our confession 
is entire when it extends to all mortal 
sins according to their number and spe- 
cies. "If any one assert that in the Sacra- 
ment of Penance it is not necessary by 
divine institution for the remission of sins 
to confess each and every mortal sin which 
Dne can remember after due and careful 
examination, also secret sins and those 
against the two last Commandments of 
God and those circumstances which alter 
the nature of a sin, let him be anathema." 
Council of Trent, Session 14, Canon 7. 

Since the confessor is to pass judgment 
he must know the nature of the sin, which 
is determined by its species, for sins 
against the same Commandment may be- 
long to different species. He must also 
know the number of sins, for the number 
influences the sentence of a judge. God, 
however, does not expect impossibilities 
and when we speak of the number we 
mean the number one remembers. If, 



PENANCE. 199 



however, without our fault we forget to 
confess a mortal sin, our confession is 
nevertheless worthy and the sin is for- 
given, but it must be told in Confession if 
it comes again to our mind. 

Since Confession is so important, every 
one should strive to make it as well as he 
can, and for this purpose he should do five 
things: he should examine his conscience, 
excite sorrow for his sins, make a firm 
resolution never more to offend God, con- 
fess his sins exactly to the priest and ac- 
cept the penance the priest gives him. 

In preparing to go to Confession we 
should pray to the Holy Ghost for the light 
to know our sins and to understand the 
displeasure they give to God, and for the 
grace to have great sorrow for our sins. 
After having called to mind how long it 
is since our last Confession and whether 
we went to Communion and said our pen- 
ance, we should go over the Command- 
ments of God and of the Church to see 
what sins we have committed. 

And here it would be well to remark 
that this examination of conscience should 
be made if possible without a prayer book, 



200 THE SACRAMENTS. 

which very often causes confusion and 
scruples. We should strive to bring our 
sins to our minds simply and directly, not 
seeking to analyze nor tabulate them. 

After we have examined our conscience 
we should seek to stir up sorrow for our 
sins, for sorrow is the most essential part 
of the Sacrament of Penance. And this 
sorrow will naturally lead us to make a 
firm resolution never to sin again. Now 
this purpose does not mean that we will 
not sin in the future. In fact we may be 
almost sure that we shall fall again. It 
means now that we are determined not to 
offend God. 

After having made this preparation we 
go into the confessional and tell our sins. 
Here we should remember to be brief. We 
should tell only our own sins, avoiding de- 
tails and unimportant circumstances. We 
should tell the number as near as possible, 
how many a day, a week or a month, and 
the circumstances changing the species. 
It is needless to say that we should not 
knowingly conceal any sin, for thereby we 
commit a sacrilege and our sins are not 
forgiven. When the priest gives us our 



PENANCE. 201 



penance we should listen attentively and 
say it as soon as possible. 

If on leaving the confessional we dis- 
cover we have forgotten a sin we should 
not go back but wait until the next time, 
for the sin has been forgiven, but we 
should confess it if we remember it when 
next we go to Confession. 

If we have had the misfortune wilfully 
to conceal a mortal sin we must go back 
to our last worthy confession and tell 
everything we have done since that time. 

Here it would be well to say a few words 
in regard to the manner of making our 
confession. On entering the confessional 
we should kneel and make the sign of the 
Cross and, while waiting for the priest to 
open the slide, should seek to excite real 
sorrow for our sins. When the priest opens 
the slide we should say "Bless me, Father, 
for I have sinned." We should then tell 
the time of our last confession, whether 
we said our penance and went to Holy 
Communion. After that we should con- 
fess our sins, mortal sins first and what- 
ever venial sins we wish to tell. When 
we have told all our sins we should say, 



202 THE SACRAMENTS. 

"For these and all the sins of my past life 
I beg pardon of God and penance and abso- 
lution of you, Father, if you judge me 
worthy/' 

If the priest questions us we should an- 
swer truthfully and clearly. When we 
have finished we should listen to the ad- 
vice of the priest and should not argue 
with him, for the priest is the judge. While 
the priest is giving us absolution we should 
renew our act of contrition. 

In going to Confession we should not 
approach the tribunal of penance with a 
feeling that it is a task to be over with as 
soon as possible. We should go to the 
priest as to a friend who will counsel, ad- 
vise and guide us; a physician who will 
heal our infirmities and prescribe for the 
future; as a father to whose heart our 
interests and our eternal welfare are as 
dear as life itself. We should have no he- 
sitancy in telling our sins just as they are 
without striving to color or minimize them. 
And having finished our confession we 
should thank God to whose infinite good- 
ness we owe this new proof of love. 



PENANCE : The Acts of The 
Penitent; Satisfaction. 




ATISFACTION, or, as it is called, 
penance, is the performance of cer- 
tain penitential works imposed by 
the confessor particularly as a rem- 
edy against repetition and as means of a 
reparation but chiefly as a punishment for 
sin. The priest gives us a penance after 
Confession that we may satisfy God for 
the temporal punishment due to our sins, 
for God does not remit all the temporal 
punishment when He remits sin itself and 
the eternal punishment to it. This is quite 
clear from the words of the Prophet 
Nathan to David: "The Lord also hath 
taken away thy sin; thou shalt not die. 
Nevertheless, because thou hast given oc- 
casion to the enemies of the Lord to blas- 
pheme, for this thing, the child that is 
born to thee, shall surely die." (2 Kings 
XII, 13-14). 

The justice of God demands satisfaction 
by some penalty for our rebellion against 
Him and for our sinful attachment to His 
creatures. This penance is slight indeed in 
comparison with the offence for which it is 



204 THE SACRAMENTS. 

intended to satisfy. From the earliest 
times it has been imposed in Confession. 
The ancient custom of public penance in 
the Church bears out this. 

The Sacrament of Penance by the abso- 
lution of the priest remits the sin itself 
and the eternal punishment due to it, but 
it does not remit all the temporal punish- 
ment. After the offence has been con- 
doned the damage still remains to be re- 
paired, and this is done by penance on 
earth or sufferings in purgatory, or both. 
Penance on earth is very acceptable in the 
sight of God, for it turns us from creatures 
to God as our last end. The Sacrament of 
Penance therefore differs from Baptism, 
which takes away both the temporal and 
eternal punishment due to sin. 

God requires temporal punishment as a 
satisfaction for sin to teach us the great 
evil of sin and to keep us from falling 
again and this satisfaction should be ren- 
dered as soon as possible, inasmuch as 
there is always the danger of forgetting. 
The penance given by the confessor is an 
integral part of the Sacrament and as 
such ought not be postponed too long. The 



PENANCE. 205 



chief means by which we satisfy God are 
prayer, fasting, alms-giving, the spiritual 
and corporal works of mercy and the pa- 
tient sufferings of the ills of life. 

In the work of satisfaction we are aided 
by indulgences. An indulgence is defined 
as a remission in whole or in part of the 
temporal punishment due to sin. It is, 
therefore, not a pardon of sin or a license 
to commit sin. It can be gained only by 
one who is in the state of grace. The 
man whose soul is stained with mortal sin 
cannot gain an indulgence, for he is an 
enemy of God. There are two kinds of in- 
dulgences, Plenary and Partial. A Plen- 
ary Indulgence is the full remission of the 
temporal punishment due to our sin. A 
Partial Indulgence is a remission of the 
part of the temporal punishment due to sin. 

The Church, by means of indulgences, 
remits the temporal punishment due to sin 
by applying to us the merits of Jesus 
Christ and the superabundant satisfac- 
tion of the saints which are her spiritual 
treasury. 

Indulgences are granted outside the Sac- 
rament of Penance. In the Sacrament of 



206 THE SACRAMENTS. 

Penance the temporal punishment is 
changed to a lighter penance; by indul- 
gences it is remitted by the application of 
the satisfaction of Christ and of the saints, 
entrusted to the Church's keeping. That 
there exists in the Church a treasury of 
good works is quite evident, for every good 
work has a two-fold value, one of satisfac- 
tion, the other of merit. 

It is also quite clear that Christ and 
the saints did not need all the value of 
their good works and sufferings and these 
superabundant works are the common pos- 
session of the Church. The Church, 
through her head, has the power to apply 
these to individuals and thus to remit the 
temporal punishment due to sin, for this 
power must be contained in the mission 
given by Christ to binding and loosing. 

The Church has always exercised this 
power, as we see in the second epistle to 
the Corinthians Chapter 2, verse 10 : "To 
whom you have pardoned anything, I also. 
For what I have pardoned, if I have par- 
doned anything, for your sakes have I done 
it, in the person of Christ." Here it is 
evidently not a case of remission of sin, for 



PENANCE. 207 



the apostle doubts whether there was any- 
thing to pardon, that is, whether the sin- 
ner himself had not already rendered sat- 
isfaction to God's justice. The Fathers 
of the Church speak constantly of this 
practice. In the writings of St. Cyprian 
we learn that from the earliest times ec- 
clesiastical penances were shortened by the 
prayers of the martyrs. 

When we speak of a Plenary Indulgence 
we mean the remission of all the temporal 
punishment due to sin which has already 
been remitted. A Partial Indulgence im- 
plies the remission before God of the tem- 
poral punishment due to sin as would be 
expiated by a certain public penance. 

Indulgences are of immense value not 
only because they remit temporal punish- 
ment but because they encourage the sin- 
ner to turn to God and promote the fre- 
quent use of the Sacraments and the per- 
formance of good works. To gain an in- 
dulgence we must be in the state of grace 
and perform the works enjoined. In order 
to gain a Plenary Indulgence we must go 
to Confession and Communion and pray 
for the intention of the Holy Father. 



EXTREME UNCTION 
A Sacrament. 




W 



E must all die. Nothing can save us 
from this general law. Great and 
small, rich and poor must all one 
day pass through the valley of 
death, for we were not created for this 
world only. We are destined to enjoy a 
better life, to dwell in a heavenly mansion. 
This world is a place of probation, where 
we are on trial. According to our actions 
we shall receive reward or punishment. 

This life, therefore, and all that per- 
tains to it, is important only in its relation 
to eternity. It is only a preparation for 
death and that religion is the best, the 
truest and the most adapted to our wants 
which teaches us the way to prepare for 
death and places at our disposal the means 
which help us to live the life of the 
righteous and to die the death of the just. 
And certainly, in this regard, there can 
be no comparison between our holy reli- 



EXTREME UNCTION. 209 

gion and the sects. Protestantism is vague 
and undecided in its belief, inconsistent 
in its practice and without the means of 
assisting its followers to live a holy life 
and to die a good death. It does not pro- 
duce, nor does it care to produce, saints, 
and rightly so, for it has choked up the 
channels of grace by rejecting the Sacra- 
ments. 

Hence, with Protestantism, death is a 
fearful thing, without consolation or alle- 
viation. Its ministers have nothing to give 
to the dying. They have no power to for- 
give, no authority to command and direct, 
no helps to offer. They can do nothing that 
any one else might not do as well. 

In the Church, however, it is different. 
Her teachings are determined and un- 
changeable. The obligations she imposes 
are specified and remain ever the same in 
essence, however their circumstantial re- 
lations to the faith may change. The 
means of pardon and of salvation exist and 
are distributed without stint to all appli- 
cants. There is a Sacrament for every im- 
portant state of this mortal life ; there 
is a Sacrament for the dying. When a 



210 THE SACRAMENTS. 

Catholic's last hour is come, he sends for 
the priest who can forgive him, can in- 
struct him, can console him and strengthen 
him. This is the end, the virtue of the 
Sacrament of Extreme Unction. 

Extreme Unction, says the Catechism, 
is the anointing of the body with holy oil 
accompanied with prayer of the priest and 
gives grace to die well. It is called Ex- 
treme Unction or last anointing because it 
is the last anointing administered by the 
Church to her children. There are several 
occasions on which anointing is used as a 
symbol of spiritual benefits conveyed to 
the soul. Thus, in Baptism, the child is 
anointed immediately before and imme- 
diately after the essential parts of the 
Sacrament. Thus, too, anointing with oil is 
used in administering Confirmation and 
Holy Orders. 

But these anointings all precede Ex- 
treme Unction, which in consequence is 
called the last anointing. The other Sac- 
raments in which anointing takes place 
were intended for persons in health. Ex- 
treme Unction was instituted by our Lord 



EXTREME UNCTION. 211 

to strengthen the dying in their passage 
out of this world into eternity. 

Extreme Unction is a Sacrament, as is 
clear from the epistle of St. James, the 
fifth chapter, the fourteenth verse: — "Is 
any man sick among you ? Let him bring 
in the priests of the Church and let them 
pray over Him, anointing him with oil in 
the name of the Lord. And the prayer of 
faith shall save the sick man and the Lord 
shall raise him up; and if he be in sins, 
they shall be forgiven him." 

Here we have verified all the conditions 
of a Sacrament : there is the outward sign, 
the anointing with oil ; there is an inward 
spiritual grace given, the saving of the 
sick man and the forgiveness of his sins, 
and, lastly there is the institution of 
Christ as the means by which grace is 
received. This we must admit unless we 
choose to allege that the Apostle decided 
to make a Sacrament or a means of grace 
without any authority from his heavenly 
Master. This text was so conclusive that 
Luther, to destroy its force, rejected the 
whole epistle and declared it not to be 
part of the Scriptures. 



212 THE SACRAMENTS. 

There are those who deny that Extreme 
Unction is a Sacrament, but, instead of 
rejecting, as did Luther, the whole epistle 
of St. James, they strive to explain away 
its meaning, and claim that the anointing 
of the Sacrament by Elders was the way 
of miraculously curing them in primitive 
times. The natural inference would, then, 
be that no Christian died in those days. 

We have mention of the existence of 
this Sacrament among the first Christ- 
ians. Of the early days there are not 
many writings extant; but the celebrated 
Origen, who was born in the century after 
the Apostles, after speaking of a humble 
confession of sins as a means of obtaining 
pardon for them, adds to it the anointing 
with oil prescribed by St. James. 

St. John Chrysostom, who lived in the 
fourth century, speaking of the power of 
the priest in remitting sins, says he exer- 
cises it when he is called on to perform 
the rite mentioned by St. James. The 
testimony of Pope Innocent I, in the same 
age expressly mentioned the matter, the 
minister and the subject of this Sacra- 
ment. 



EXTREME UNCTION. 213 

If the text from St. James does not point 
out a Sacrament, how came the Sacrament 
to exist? The Catholic Church did not 
invent it, could not have invented it, for it 
must be remembered that the Nestorians 
broke away from the Communion of the 
Church in 431, and the Eutychians in 451 ; 
that these rival sects exist in numerous 
congregations throughout the East at the 
present day, yet they as well as the 
Greeks, Armenians and other schismatics 
maintain, in belief and practice, Extreme 
Unction as one of the seven Sacraments. 
All this tends to show that the Sacrament 
of Extreme Unction must have come down 
from apostolic times. 




EXTREME UNCTION : Object 
and Nature. 




Q 



XTREME Unction we have seen, is a 
Sacrament instituted by Christ. 
Our consideration now is con- 
cerned with its nature and the way 
in which we should receive it. As its name 
implies, the matter of Extreme Unction is 
oil, blessed by the Bishop and applied by 
the priest. If we were convinced that the 
Sacraments were not instituted by Christ 
we would be forced to admit that they are 
very admirable inventions. Their matter 
and their form and their ceremonies, as 
well as the whole system, inspire the 
greatest admiration. Everything is so ap- 
propriate. 

Thus in Extreme Unction oil is most ap- 
propriately the matter, for it has a 
strengthening, healing, soothing effect, 
such as the effect of this Sacrament should 
be. By oil consecration is performed and 
by this Sacrament our body like a defiled 



EXTREME UNCTION. 215 

temple is purged and reconsecrated to God 
forever. The eyes, the nostrils, the mouth, 
the hands, the feet are anointed, because 
by all these organs which are so closely 
connected with our senses we offend God. 

All, perhaps, have been perverted from 
their true end; by all these avenues sin 
enters into the soul and by all these grace 
must be carried back. The words of the 
form are short but expressive, — "By this 
holy anointing and of His own most tender 
mercy may the Lord forgive thee what- 
ever thou hast committed/' etc., mention- 
ing the sense with which the anointed part 
is closely connected. This is the essence 
of the Sacrament; there are prayers and 
ceremonies before and after this essential 
part that precede as a preparation and fol- 
low as a thanksgiving. It would be well 
for every Catholic to read these prayers 
and reflect upon them. 

None but a priest can administer ' the 
Sacrament of Extreme Unction. Any 
priest can validly administer this Sacra- 
ment. All those who have been baptized 
and have come to the use of reason and 



216 THE SACRAMENTS. 

are in danger of death by sickness are the 
proper subjects for this Sacrament. 

Baptism, as we have already seen, is the 
gate of the other Sacraments, and conse- 
quently must be received before them, and 
as Extreme Unction is instituted as a rem- 
edy for the effects of sin, it can only be re- 
ceived by those who have in a greater or 
less degree incurred its guilt. In order to 
receive the Sacrament of Extreme Unction 
a person must be in danger of death by 
sickness. Hence infants and those who 
have never had the use of reason are in- 
capable of receiving Extreme Unction. 
Soldiers going into battle, or criminals 
about to be executed, or sailors on a peril- 
ous voyage cannot receive Extreme Unc- 
tion because though they are in danger of 
death it is not from sickness. No one 
should attempt, therefore, to receive this 
Sacrament who is not dangerously ill. 

At the same time, however, it is well to 
remark that Extreme Unction should not 
be delayed until the person has come to 
the last extremity. Among certain people 
there seems to be an idea that the giving 
of Extreme Unction means sure death, 



EXTREME UNCTION. 217 

hence they wait until there is absolutely 
no hope of recovery, and as a consequence 
the person is either unconscious or has 
died before the priest can reach him. 




EXTREME UNCTION : Effects 
and Necessity. 




© 



HE Disciples came one day to show 
our Savior the buildings of the 
Temple, we read in Matthew, 
twenty-fourth chapter, second 
verse, and Jesus said: "A stone shall not 
be left upon a stone." So all the things 
of this world must perish, the wonders of 
nature and the inventions of art all must 
pass away and with them we also. The 
temple of our body, however beautiful it 
may be, must one day be turned into dust. 
We must all die. Nothing can preserve us. 
"It is determined for all men once to die." 
The subject of Extreme Unction natur- 
ally recalls this great fact and reminds us 
of the way we should die, of the prepara- 
tion for death, of the graces which are 
given us and the dispositions with which 
we should receive them. The Sacrament of 
Extreme Unction has three principal ef- 
fects : It strengthens a sick person against 
the temptations of the devil and the horror 



EXTREME UNCTION. 219 

of death ; it confirms his faith and confid- 
ence in God and by that means fortifies 
him against the attacks of the evil one ; it 
excites in one's heart the desire and the 
hope of possessing God and thus fortifies 
him against the fear of death. 

The more ardent this desire and the 
firmer this hope the less man fears to die. 
Hence it is often called the Sacrament of 
Hope. 

Extreme Unction also effaces the 
traces of sin together with the sins them- 
selves if there are still any to be expiated. 
Hence the Sacrament is called by the 
Fathers of the Church and the Council of 
Trent the perfection and completion of 
Penance. By the traces or remains of sin 
is understood a weakness or languor of 
soul which continues even after the sin 
has been forgiven, produces a lingering at- 
tachment to the things of earth and pre- 
vents us from having a taste for spiritual 
things. 

Extreme Unction removes that weak- 
ness by turning us from the world and 
making us desire Heaven. It also remits 
venial sin and even those mortal sins 



220 THE SACRAMENTS. 

which have not been forgotten or which 
the sick person is unable to confess, pro- 
vided, however, that there be sincere and 
true contrition. If possible, recourse must 
previously be had to the Sacrament of Pen- 
ance, for Extreme Unction is a Sacra- 
ment of the living and ought to be re- 
ceived in the state of grace. The Sacra- 
ment of Extreme Unction not infrequently 
restores health to the sick, if it is consist- 
ent with the will of God and our salva- 
tion. This effect is not so rare as we 
might imagine. 

Extreme Unction is one of the Sacra- 
ments of the living, not merely in the doc- 
trinal sense, but also in the practical sense. 
It was instituted for the dangerously sick. 
In the Providence and mercy of God it has 
a two-fold function: to give strength and 
healing to both soul and body. Many a 
man and woman now walking this earth in 
good health has been annointed, some of 
them, more than once, and they believe 
that God cured them through this great 
Sacrament. And rightly, as Christ insti- 
tuted it for sickness of the body as well 
as that of the soul. What is more common 



EXTREME UNCTION. 221 

in cases of severe and baffling sickness 
than to send for a specialist or transport 
the patient hundreds of miles to some far- 
famed surgeon. And here at hand is the 
Great Physician, our divine Lord, un- 
called. 

We are not free to receive or defer the 
Sacrament of Extreme Unction. We are 
obliged by precept to receive it. The words 
of St. James clearly indicate a precept in 
this regard. In order worthily to receive 
Extreme Unction we must be in a state 
of grace or try to be in a state of grace 
when on account of the advanced stages 
of sickness confession is impossible. If 
the person is at all conscious he should 
try to make some sign to indicate that he 
is sorry for his sins. 

There is abroad, almost universal, the 
dangerous error that the administration of 
Extreme Unction means the death of the 
stricken one. The fear of death has been a 
powerful agent in spreading this error; 
unfounded hope is another. At times it 
seems that the priest who brings the Holy 
Oil for the Sick is looked upon as the fore- 
runner of death. 



222 THE SACRAMENTS. 

One of the very potent reasons why Ex- 
treme Unction has come to be dreaded so 
unreasonably is that in numberless cases 
those whose duty it was to guard the inter- 
ests of the sick, failed to summon a priest 
until the patient was at death's door, until 
the touch of death was already on the un- 
fortunate's forehead. They never gave the 
Sacrament a chance to be efficacious for 
the body and, perhaps, for the soul. Co- 
operation of the faithful with the grace 
of the Sacraments is a mighty force for 
good. Yet sometimes wives, husbands, 
children in unreasoning dread and blindest 
affection, stand positively in the way of 
that cooperation at the very time when 
those they love need it most. 

The sick person should have faith, for 
Extreme Unction is a Sacrament of the 
Church, instituted by Christ for this spec- 
ial purpose. St. James calls it the grace 
of faith. Our Savior always required some 
expression of faith before He worked a 
miracle ; so, too, in this Sacrament without 
faith there can be no grace. It should be 
received with sentiments of piety and de- 



EXTREME UNCTION. 223 

votion of union with our Lord and confor- 
mity to His holy will. 

There should be a union of intention 
with that of the Church. The priest 
is like the good Samaritan, who is pour- 
ing oil on our wounds to heal them and 
asking pardon of God for all our sins. All 
our thoughts should be upon God and not 
on country or friends. In other words, 
we should prepare ourselves to come into 
the presence of our Creator. 




EXTREME UNCTION: Sick 
Calls. 




y+*s HE best, bravest, wisest men and 
Vl/ women who ever lived feared 
death: the death of the body, the 
tearing asunder of soul and body; 
but particularly, the death of the soul, the 
eternal death. They were extraordinarily 
careful to prepare for both. Though they 
dreaded the final struggle, the inevitable 
moment, they would have been amazed 
that one who called himself a friend would 
keep the crucial news a secret from the 
one of all the world most concerned. 

Often it is not the end of life that is so 
terrible to the sick as the suddenness of 
the realization, the unpreparedness. And 
in how many families the relatives of 
one mortally ill conspire to keep the truth 
from the patient! The pretext may be 
what is miscalled love, a dread to be the 
heralds of death news; sometimes, too, it 
is pure selfishness, a longing to put off the 
evil day as long as possible, a false encour- 



EXTREME UNCTION. 225 

agement that is nothing less than trait- 
orous. 

What matters it, if we be accused of 
cold-heartedness. Real cold-heartedness 
consists in concealing truth of vital im- 
portance from one in the greatest need of 
it. Nor is there any ignoring the fact that 
a death in the family is a sorrow often be- 
yond description; that stricken relatives 
and friends hope on until the very last. A 
priest who has seen death lay its cold 
finger on those dearest to him on earth, 
who has followed the course of sickness 
in hundreds of families, who has soothed 
the dying with all that God's graces gives 
and all that human nature in the time of 
desperate need calls to his heart and lips, 
is of all men the most commiserate, for 
generally he knows more about the pass- 
ing soul than any one else in the world, 
and what need there is for every aid that 
can be given. 

There is no lack, even in this sorrowful 
world, of sympathy and charity, but there 
is all too much that is ill-directed. The 
most pitiful of these is the sympathy or 
charity that by dread, delay or other mo- 



226 THE SACRAMENTS. 

tives, closes the gates of Heaven for souls 
for whom Christ died. 

Preparedness for the coming of the 
priest into the sick room, includes not mer- 
ely that quietness of manner and due an- 
nouncement of the visit to the patient, but 
also those small yet important material 
preparations that bring a consolation in 
themselves. If you consider the Sacra- 
ments you will note that our Lord selected 
common, ordinary material things, added 
to which the divine grace gives spiritual 
power. He took water for Baptism, bread 
and wine for the Holy Eucharist and so on. 
So there are certain ordinary things 
needed for the administration of Sacra- 
ments to the sick. 

The room wherein the mysteries of 
God's grace are soon to be enacted is to 
become a temple of God. Mere worldly 
decorations ought to be removed. There 
should be a table large enough to hold 
what is needed, covered with a spotless 
cloth, and on this the crucifix, two blessed 
candles and a vase with holy water. The 
afflicted person looks forth from the bed of 
pain and feels already in these prepara- 



EXTREME UNCTION. 227 

tions a sense of real encouragement, some- 
thing of that feeling that has occurred he- 
fore during heartfelt prayer before the 
Blessed Sacrament. When such duties are 
carefully and in good time performed, 
fulfilment diffuses good on all sides. The 
sick person is quiet and collected — in brief, 
in a proper frame of mind for the great 
gifts soon to be presented ; the priest sees 
everything ready for the orderly and 
proper administration of the Sacraments 
and is enabled to give his best efforts to 
giving all the consolation and encourage- 
ment in his power, being relieved of dis- 
tractions and the interruptions caused by 
delay. It would be easy to depict a sick 
call where everything is wrong; priests 
in any parish behold such scenes daily. But 
perhaps it is better to describe, as has been 
attempted, what the proper settings for 
sick calls ought to be. 

Once the requisite preparations for the 
priest's coming have been made, the du- 
ties of others in the room and the house 
can be summed up as silence and prayer. 
The minister of Christ is present and on 
most such occasions he brings our Blessed 



228 THE SACRAMENTS. 

Lord with him. It is no time for tears or 
groans or unrestrained emotion; it is em- 
phatically the time for sincere prayer that 
the will of God may be done and a strug- 
gling soul assisted. 

When the Sacraments have been admin- 
istered and the priest has gone to other 
duties, the sick person should be allowed 
absolute quiet and peace. It is a very 
sacred hour with the tranquil figure on 
that bed; an hour of thanksgiving and 
communion with God. Do not lightly in- 
terrupt those holy thoughts. Do not 
hasten to bring back to worldly cares that 
child of God who may be soon to leave 
earth forever. How often does it happen 
that one who in sickness has been impa- 
tient, hard to manage and provocative of 
sadness and a feeling of helplessness, 
changes after the administration of the 
Sacraments to a different, a more patient 
being. 

There is no occasion in life where tact 
has not its function ; one of its most impor- 
tant fields is the sick room ; and tact in the 
sick room may be defined as a judicious 
combination of common sense, merciful- 



EXTREME UNCTION. 229 

ness and patience. This is a duty whose 
faithful performance is very dear to God. 
Read in the Gospels how divinely merciful 
He was to the afflicted. They who have 
the opportunity to follow Him in caring 
for the sick, ought to be thankful ; it is a 
great opportunity. 

Health is natural; sickness a veritable 
rack of agony to most men and women. 
What we sometimes take for patience is 
nothing but sheer weakness. Much can 
be done to alleviate all this unhappiness. 
Pious books adapted to the individual who 
is sick are useful. The word "adapted" is 
used here advisedly, for not every pious 
book is suitable to every patient. Prayer 
in common with the sick assists much also, 
aiding them to think of God and the world 
to come. 

The near relatives of a seriously sick 
man or woman face a work for which they 
are not always equipped. They are kind 
and unkind by turns ; they perhaps grieve 
or excite the patient unnecessarily. In a 
way the latter is living in the dim quiet 
world of the sick room and the former a 
part of the other world outside. After the 



230 THE SACRAMENTS. 

administration of the Sacraments perse- 
verance in grace is of the utmost impor- 
tance. Excitement therefore and anything 
that would turn the thoughts of the 
stricken from God should be avoided with 
the utmost care. 

Another thing is to be remembered ; it is 
not always what you think will benefit, 
cheer or encourage the sick that are 
needed; not always your practices of 
prayer of devotion, but the things that 
will be efficacious with the individual be- 
fore you. Unshaken patience is the need- 
ful thing. Often in sickness, brief or long, 
new traits of character come out, and a 
wise recognition of these matters accom- 
plishes much for what all Catholics wish 
most devoutly for those united by the 
bonds of affection — the salvation of the 
soul. 

When God wills not health of the body 
but transition to eternal life, and the last 
hours begin, the relatives and friends 
should unite in the prayers for the dying. 
Blessed candles are to be lighted, as they 
represent the faith of the departing soul 



EXTREME UNCTION. 231 

received in Baptism and maintained to the 
end of life. And when the eyes we have 
looked on so often in life are closed for 
the last time, the duty of family and 
friends does not cease. Rather it contin- 
ues. The departed should be remembered 
often in prayer and care should be taken 
to have Masses celebrated for the departed 
soul ; not in the first few weeks while grief 
and loss are poignant, but in the days and 
years that follow. Remember that soul as 
you, in like case, would have others re- 
member you. 




HOLY ORDERS : The Priest- 
hood. 




~]F all the Sacraments of the Church 
none are more closely related to the 
7[$m interests of society than Holy Or- 
ders and Matrimony. By marriage 
the human race is propagated and pre- 
served; by Holy Orders the priesthood is 
perpetuated and a body of men set apart 
for the purpose of carrying on Christ's 
work on earth. 

The priesthood in the Church was insti- 
tuted by Christ Himself to teach His doc- 
trines, to distribute His grace through the 
Sacraments and to offer sacrifice. The 
priest is a medium between the people and 
God. Like Moses, he is the representative 
of God before the people and the represen- 
tative of the people before God. He is the 
instrument of Christ, by which Christ's 
mediation is brought to mankind. 

In a general sense the whole Christian 
people is a priesthood, as St. Peter notes 
in his epistle, (Chap. II, 5-9), on 



HOLY ORDERS. 233 

account of their intimate union with 
Christ, in whose nature and prerogatives 
they partake in a wonderful manner. As 
by this union with Christ our identity is 
not merged in His, so the fact we all par- 
take to a certain degree in the priesthood 
of Christ does not do away with the neces- 
sity of a special priesthood. Divines, 
therefore, distinguish between the internal 
and the external priesthood ; the former is 
common to all Christians ; the latter is re- 
served to a chosen body. 

Against Protestantism, which maintains 
there is no priesthood, Catholics hold that 
there is and ought to be a priesthood in 
the New Law. 

That there is such a priesthood is clear 
from the testimony of St. Paul. The Apos- 
tle in the Epistle to the Hebrews tells us 
that a priest is "one ordained for men in 
things pertaining to God," and his office is 
"to offer gifts and sacrifices." (Heb. V. 1.) 
And in this the Apostle gives us the mean- 
ing of the word as used in root languages, 
in which we find the notion of setting 
apart those who are to act on man's behalf 



234 THE SACRAMENTS. 

before God. Of these a certain sacred- 
ness was demanded. 

A priesthood we have — the priesthood 
of Christ, who acting through His repre- 
sensatives preaches, baptizes, consecrates 
and absolves. 

Protestants deny the existence of a 
priesthood and say that it detracts from 
the mediation of Christ, who, they remind 
us, is the sole mediator. Yet for this very 
reason Catholics affirm the existence of 
the priesthood. We believe in a living 
Christ, whose work was not finished when 
He ascended into heaven but will be con- 
tinued in the world until "He come" again. 
To continue visibly the mission of Christ 
is the work of the priesthood. 

The Christian priesthood in no way de- 
tracts from the mediation of Christ, for 
it does not act independently of Christ's 
mediation ; for from that great fact comes 
its whole reason for being. As the priest- 
hood of the Old Law typified Christ's me- 
diation, so that of the New Law carries 
that mediation to men that they may en- 
joy its blessings. Hence, they do not in- 



HOLY ORDERS. 235 

terfere in any way with Christ's work of 
saving man. 

The priesthood of Christ is different 
from that of the Old and New Laws, for 
His priesthood flows from His very nature. 
Those who discharge an office which re- 
fers directly to God and who present to 
Him the offerings of man may be called 
priests, as was Melchisedech. But Christ's 
priestly office is the direct consequence of 
the union of two natures in His divine per- 
son, whereby He is the mediator between 
God and man. 

By this union He became by nature the 
real representative between God and man ; 
all earthly priests are such only by office 
or appointment. Only through this con- 
junction of God and man can any accept- 
able offering be rendered by men to God. 
As Christ is the only channel through 
which graces flow from God to man, so He 
is the only medium through which worship 
ascends from man to his Creator. Christ 
is the great High Priest who is our 
Mediator by nature. 

The Church is a divine and human insti- 
tution. Accordingly, for the exercise of 



236 THE SACRAMENTS. 

public functions, for teaching and for ad- 
ministering the Sacraments a divine inter- 
nal calling is required. But as the divine 
invisible nature of the Church is connected 
with the human outward form, so this 
calling must be outwardly discerned and 
recognized. Hence, the public exercise of 
ecclesiastical functions is authorized by a 
Sacrament, an outward act to be per- 
formed by men according to the institu- 
tion of Christ and signifying and giving 
grace. 

The Council of Trent (Sess. 23, Chap. 3) 
says : "Since it is clear from the testimony 
of the Scriptures, from apostolic tradition 
and from the unanimous consent of the 
Fathers that by sacred ordination, which 
is administered by words and external 
signs, grace is conferred, no one must 
doubt but that order is truly and properly 
one of the seven Sacraments of Holy 
Church, for the Apostle says : I admonish 
you to stir up the grace that is in you 
by the imposition of my hands." 

Hence the Church does not accept a 
priest unless he first receive external con- 
secration, unless he receive through the 



HOLY ORDERS. 237 

imposition of the hands of the Bishop 
the Holy Ghost. The nature of the 
Church as a visible body demands an or- 
dination originating with Christ, the foun- 
tain head, and perpetuated in uninter- 
rupted succession from the Apostles down 
to our day. 

The priest as a teacher is a necessity in 
the New Law. Men need to be taught. 
There is no period in the history of the 
world when men could be left to them- 
selves. Even philosophy makes use of tra- 
dition in order that reason may be exer- 
cised and developed. Adam was taught by 
God in the beginning. After that men 
steadily declined because they had no 
teacher. After the deluge revelation was 
renewed, but in a short time it perished 
everywhere except among the Jews, who 
had teachers. Amidst persecutions and 
attacks from all sides the Church has alone 
stood, upheld by her body of teachers. 

We have proved the existence and truth 
of the Sacraments. But they cannot be 
administered by everyone; there must be 
some body of men to administer them. 

What we have thus far concluded from 



238 THE SACRAMENTS. 

reason and analogy is clearly confirmed 
by the Scriptures. The Lord chose twelve 
Apostles and seventy-two Disciples and 
sent them into the world. And in doing 
so He said : "As the Father hath sent Me, 
so I also send you." John XX, 21. Their 
mission was then identical with Christ's. 

"The Holy Ghost has placed you as Bish- 
ops to rule the Church of God." Acts XX, 
28. 

We could quote numerous texts showing 
that Christ instituted a priesthood in His 
Church. 

Hence we conclude that Christ going 
from the world did not desert it. His vis- 
ible presence was taken away; but His 
spirit remained with us and His priests 
and His agents for the manifestation and 
action of this spirit. We believe in a liv- 
ing Christ. And in this the mercy of God 
and His providence are splendidly ex- 
hibited. 




HOLY ORDERS: A Sacrament. 




v^FlE have seen that in the Catholic 
vl/ Church there should and does ex- 
ggggj ist a priesthood, and in the present 
instruction we shall show that it is 
perpetuated by a Sacrament. The priest- 
hood is a divine institution, and hence sup- 
poses a Sacrament. This follows by anal- 
ogy the plan of God in instituting the 
other Sacraments, which are marks of 
God's special love for His children. In the 
Sacraments God gives help in proportion 
and relation to all our wants. 

We come into the world with sin on our 
souls ; Baptism takes away that stain. We 
grow up and are exposed to all kinds of 
dangers, which follow us through life; 
against these we are strengthened by Con- 
firmation. Unfortunately we frequently 
fall into sin, and we have two Sacraments, 
Penance and the Eucharist, the one to 
give us back spiritual life and the other 
to nourish and strengthen that life. When 
we are about to die we have a special 
Sacrament. 



240 THE SACRAMENTS. 

Those who marry and thus enter into 
the new state of life and assume new duties 
have a Sacrament which gives them the 
necessary graces to fulfil those obligations. 
Those who become priests are set apart 
and form a separate class and assume new 
and stupendous obligations and are en- 
trusted with a weighty mission. 

Certainly, then, since God has instituted 
a Sacrament for every other state of life, 
He has not neglected to do so for those 
who are to continue His mission here on 
earth, to preach, to sanctify and represent 
Him in all things before the people. 

The priests of the New Law are of a 
higher order than those of the Old Law. 
Yet the Jewish priests were anointed, es- 
pecially appointed. The priesthood of the 
New Law fulfils what was foreshadowed 
in the Old, and cannot be less than it. 

Christ means anointed. Those who take 
His place among men ought likewise to be 
consecrated for such a lofty office. 

What is a presumption from analogy 
is confirmed by the testimony of Scrip- 
ture, of Tradition and by the definition 
of the Church. 



HOLY ORDERS. 241 

The Scriptures clearly show that Christ 
conferred a true priesthood on His Apos- 
tles. At the Last Supper, as we have seen, 
He gave them the power to change bread 
and wine into His Body and Blood, in other 
words, to offer sacrifice, which is the office 
of a priest. He also commissioned them to 
forgive or retain sins in His name, that is, 
to sanctify others, to reconcile sinners to 
God. And this, too, is the office of a priest. 
The Apostles, then, received a twofold mis- 
sion from Christ — first to offer sacrifice, 
and to sanctify the faithful by the admin- 
istration of the Blessed Eucharist, and 
secondly, to reconcile sinners by the Sacra- 
ment of Penance. 

The inward sanctification of the faith- 
ful is a constant preparation for death and 
their eternal destiny. The ministry is 
exercised by teaching and precept, and is 
called jurisdiction, as distinguished from 
internal sanctification, which is termed 
orders. 

That the priesthood was intended by 
Christ to be perpetual is clear from the 
commission given the Apostles at the Last 
Supper : "Do this for a commemoration of 



242 THE SACRAMENTS. 

Me." These words were addressed not 
only to the Apostles but to their succes- 
sors, for it is question of an institution 
that is to remain in the Church until the 
end of time. The same argument holds for 
the power of forgiving sins. 

Tradition, reflected in the writings of the 
Fathers, states the mind of all Christen- 
dom to be that Christ instituted Holy 
Orders by which His priesthood was to 
be continued until time shall be no more. 

And Holy Orders Christ made a Sacra- 
ment, whereby the priestly office and the 
grace necessary to discharge it are con- 
ferred. We read in 2 Tim. I, 6, 7: "I ad- 
monish thee that thou stir up the grace of 
God which is in thee by the imposition 
of my hands. For God hath not given us 
the spirit of fear, but of power, and of 
love, and of sobriety." In this passage 
we have all the requisites of a Sacrament. 
There is the outward sign in the imposi- 
tion of hands; there is the grace which 
results therefrom; and there is the insti- 
tution of Christ, for He alone could attach 
inward grace to an outward ceremony. 

The teaching of the Church is contained 



HOLY ORDERS. 243 

in the Council of Trent, which (Sess. 
XXIII, Can. 3) anathematizes those who 
deny that Orders are a Sacrament. 

In Holy Orders there are various de- 
grees. This follows from the twofold 
power vested in the Church — jurisdiction 
and orders. 

As regards jurisdiction the principal de- 
grees are Pope, Bishops and priests. 

According to orders there are many divi- 
sions of which the priesthood is the sum- 
mit. There are eight orders. Tonsure is 
only an introduction to the clerical life. 
Minor Orders are four in number, corres- 
ponding to offices that flourished in the 
early Church. They are perhaps of divine 
institution but they are not Sacraments. 
They are porter, lector, exorcist and 
acolyte. 

There are four Major Orders — subdea- 
conship, deaconship, priesthood and epis- 
copate. Subdeaconship is probably not a 
Sacrament. The diaconate is a Sacrament, 
but differs from the priesthood. The dea- 
con is the minister to the Bishop and has 
an exalted office. He can preach with 
authority ; he can baptize solemnly and he 



244 THE SACRAMENTS. 

can expose the Blessed Sacrament for Ben- 
ediction. Formerly he could distribute 
Holy Communion. 

The priesthood is different in essence 
and form from the deaconship, but not 
from the episcopate. The latter, while dis- 
tinct from it, is the development and com- 
pletion of the priesthood. The priesthood, 
however, is not the complement of the dia- 
conate, for the essence of the priesthood 
is to offer sacrifice and to administer the 
Sacraments. This power the deacon has 
not. 

To receive Holy Orders validly a person 
must be of the male sex (1 Cor. XI, 7) ; 
he must have been baptized and must 
intend to receive the Sacrament. 

To receive it licitly a person must be in 
the state of grace ; he must have a special 
call from God (Heb. V, 4) ; he must be 
free from canonical impediments and he 
must have the fixed purpose of continuing 
chaste and single. 




MATRIMONY : A Sacred Con- 
tract. 




jPjlMONG the many evils which Protest- 
s' I, antism has brought upon modern 
WM society is the degradation of mar- 
riage. The innovators of the six- 
teenth century were not content with 
sweeping away all faith. They abolished 
the Sacrifice of the Mass and their 
churches became meeting houses. They 
denied the divine institution of the Sacra- 
ments, and would have left us poor, indeed. 
They secularized marriage and rejected the 
Catholic doctrine which declares it to be a 
Sacrament. The social disorders which to- 
day affect society are the fruits of their 
endeavors. Protestantism in its very in- 
fancy witnessed the consequences which 
logically grow from its teachings. 

The Church, on the contrary, clung to 
the Faith, the Scriptures, the Sacra- 
ments and the true principles of Divine 
Worship, of right government and social 
order. This has been especially the case 



246 THE SACRAMENTS. 



with regard to marriage. She saved mod- 
ern society from a return to paganism. 
Throughout the centuries, in the midst of 
the most trying persecutions, she opposed 
the passions of men. Neither threats nor 
promises, neither violence nor intrigue, 
caused her in a single instance to act con- 
trary to the teachings of her Divine Mas- 
ter. She lost England rather than permit 
the polygamy of Henry VIII. 

Fortunately, Protestant society, guided 
by the impulse which it had received and 
still receives from the Church, has not ac- 
cepted all the dreadful consequences of the 
conduct and the teachings of its chiefs. 
Every student of history knows that "the 
Church was the force which prevented the 
current of sensuality from overflowing 
with its violence, with all its caprices, from 
bringing about the most profound disor- 
ganization, from corrupting the character 
of European civilization and precipitating 
it into that abyss in which the nations of 
Asia have been for so many centuries." 

In view of the loose teaching that exists 
outside the Church concerning marriage it 
is imperative that Catholics should be well 



MATRIMONY. 247 



informed of its importance and meaning. 
It is the most important social relation 
that Catholics can contract, in its es- 
sence, its permanence, its consequences 
and obligations. 

Matrimony is a Sacrament by which a 
contract of marriage is blessed and sancti- 
fied. As a Sacrament it was instituted by 
our Lord Jesus Christ when He was on 
earth. As a contract or state of life it 
dates from the beginning of the world. As, 
then, the Sacrament is founded on this 
contract and cannot be separated from it r 
it is necessary first to consider matrimony 
as a contract before considering it as a 
Sacrament. 

Marriage as a contract is defined : a law- 
ful union of a man and woman by which 
they give themselves up to one another for 
mutual society and the begetting of chil- 
dren. As men bind themselves to one an- 
other by contracts of different objects, so 
the essential part in matrimony as a con- 
tract is that man and woman bind them- 
selves to one another. In order that this 
contract may be valid, it is necessary that 
it should be made by persons who are not 



248 THE SACRAMENTS. 

legally hindered from making it. It should 
be voluntary and be expressed by words or 
outward signs to signify that the contract- 
ing parties actually, then and there, bind 
themselves with the intention of living as 
man and wife. Hence, the mere promise 
or intention to bind themselves hereafter 
to one another does not constitute a con- 
tract of marriage. 

The contract of matrimony was insti- 
tuted by God Himself when He made man. 
We read in the first chapter of Genesis 
that "God created man in His own image 
. . . male and female He created them 
and God blessed them and said 'Increase 
and multiply and fill the earth/ " In this 
passage the primary end of this union of 
man and woman in marriage is indicated. 

Further on, a more particular account of 
the creation of Eve, the first woman, is 
given and the second end of marriage is 
referred to : "And the Lord said : it is not 
good for man to be alone ; let Us make him 
a help like unto himself." And a little 
further on: "for Adam there was not 
found a helper like himself. Then the 
Lord cast a deep sleep upon Adam; and 



MATRIMONY. 249 



when he was fast asleep He took one of 
his ribs and filled up flesh for it. And the 
Lord built the rib which he took from 
Adam into a woman ; and brought her to 
Adam. And Adam said : This now is bone 
of my bone and flesh of my flesh; she 
shall be called a woman because she was 
taken out of man. Wherefore a man shall 
leave father and mother and cleave to his 
wife ; and they shall be two in one flesh." 
(Gen. II, 18-24). 

Our Lord Himself refers to this account 
showing that marrying was a divine insti- 
tution. (Matt. 19, 5). These two, then, 
were the ends of marriage before the fall 
of man. After the fall, when the flesh 
was no longer obedient to the spirit, a 
third and subsidiary end of marriage nat- 
urally came about, that, through it, man 
might more easily avoid offending God. As 
St. Paul says: (I Cor. 7, 2). "To avoid 
fornication let every man have his own 
wife and let every woman have her own 
husband." 

To render this contract still more sacred, 
Jesus Christ has raised it to the dignity of 
a Sacrament, attaching to it the grace to 



250 THE SACRAMENTS. 

make more secure that indissoluble union 
and to sanctify those who contract it. He 
has made it the image and sign of His 
intimate union with His Church. In the 
New Law marriage has become the source 
of spiritual blessing for those who receive 
it with Christian dispositions. 

Speaking of the attitude of Protestant- 
ism towards the Sacrament of Matrimony, 
Balmes justly observes: "Misled by their 
hatred against the Roman Church and ex- 
asperated by their rage for innovation in 
all things, the Protestants thought they 
had made a great reform in secularizing 
marriage and in rejecting the Catholic doc- 
trine which declared it a real Sacrament. 
This is not the place to enter upon a dog- 
matic discussion of this matter. I shall 
content myself with observing that by de- 
priving marriage of the august seal of a 
Sacrament Protestantism showed that it 
had little knowledge of the human heart. 

"To consider marriage not a simple 
civil contract but as a real Sacrament was 
to place it under the august shade of reli- 
gion and to raise it above the stormy at- 
mosphere of the passions. And who can 



MATRIMONY. 251 



doubt that this was absolutely necessary 
to restrain the most active, capricious and 
violent passion of the heart of man? The 
civil laws are insufficient to produce such 
an effect. Motives are required which, be- 
ing drawn from a higher source, exert a 
more efficacious influence." 




MATRIMONY : A Sacrament. 




GJHRIST perfected the law, strength- 
j ened its weak points, confirmed its 
virtues and pointed out to Chris- 
tians a new and more exalted line 
of conduct as the aim of their aspirations 
and as the matter of their duty. He came 
to teach a holier life and to give the helps 
which might render it possible. 

And therefore He said: "Be ye perfect 
as your Heavenly Father is perfect/' 
Hence He restrained our liberty in many 
particulars and what the hardness of Jew- 
ish hearts rendered tolerable He con- 
demned and prohibited. As regards mar- 
riage He suppressed polygamy and divorce 
and many abuses that were tolerated 
among the Jews. 

Marriage was in a degraded state among 
the Gentiles; woman was held as a mere 
chattel. Even among the Jews its first 
glory was gone; and we read in the Old 
Testament practices of the Jews which 
astonish us. Our Lord came to establish 
a new kingdom. He wished to raise 



MATRIMONY. 253 



woman from her state of inferiority and 
bondage, to give back to marriage its prim- 
itive honor and to revive its obligations. 
And that men might be equal to these 
new responsibilities, He gave new and 
abundant graces, sanctifying, habitual and 
actual, and raised marriage to the dignity 
of a Sacrament. 

The so-called reformers, in rejecting 
Matrimony as a Sacrament, declared also 
that the obligations introduced by our Sa- 
vior, and, till then, held by all Christians, 
were not real. They admit in theory and 
practice divorce. Luther expressly sanc- 
tioned polygamy and his example was fol- 
lowed by the principal promoters of Prot- 
estantism. For proof we have but to re- 
call the infamous decision in favor of 
Philip, Landgrave of Hesse. 

Thus, Protestantism, which boasts of 
having purified the world and brought 
back the fair faith of the primitive 
Church, carried us back to the days before 
Christ. 

If Catholics were mistaken in regarding 
Matrimony as a Sacrament and polygamy 
and divorce as prohibited their error was 



254 THE SACRAMENTS. 

at least on the side of religion, and the 
morality of the social order. If the 
Church had not given a strong and endur- 
ing impulse to society and had not, by her 
existence in the world and her teachings 
and practices, maintained this impulse, 
Christendom would now be groaning un- 
der the horrors of paganism. 

At the birth of Protestantism the whole 
World believed that Matrimony was a Sac- 
rament. This belief had always existed in 
the Oriental as well as the Latin Church. 
The Patriarchs and Bishops of both 
Churches assembled at the Council of Flor- 
ence, declared this an article of faith with- 
out dispute or hesitation. In that Council 
there were differences regarding details, 
but none whatever concerning the fact 
that Matrimony was a Sacrament. 

This belief of the Universal Church is 
based on the soundest arguments. As we 
have seen, Christ restored the obligations 
of Matrimony to their primitive state. We 
are told (John II) that Christ went with 
His Disciples to the marriage feast of 
Cana, and, in this fact the Fathers of the 
Church, almost without exception, find a 



MATRIMONY. 255 



proof that Matrimony is a Sacrament. The 
general opinion of the Fathers is that as 
Christ sanctified water for washing away 
sins by being Himself baptized in the Jor- 
dan, so He sanctified marriage and raised 
it to the dignity of a Sacrament by Him- 
self assisting at the marriage at Cana 
where He worked His first miracle. 

St. Paul, in his epistle to the Ephesians 
(IV, 32) says: "This is a great Sacra- 
ment; but I speak in Christ and in the 
Church." The context shows clearly that 
by this St. Paul declares Matrimony to be 
a Sacrament. For to constitute a Sacra- 
ment it is required that there should be a 
sensible sign of a sacred thing and an ef- 
ficacious sign of sanctifying grace insti- 
tuted by Christ to last forever. All these 
conditions are verified in Matrimony as ex- 
pounded by St. Paul in this passage. 

In the contract we have a sensible sign 
of a sacred thing; for this contract signi- 
fies, the Apostle tells us, the union of 
Christ with the Church — His natural 
union with her through His incarnation 
and His spiritual union with her through 
charity. As St. Jerome remarks : "As man 



256 THE SACRAMENTS. 

leaves his father and mother and cleaves 
to his wife, so Christ left the bosom of His 
Father and came upon earth to be united 
with the Church, and to be made one body 
with her through His Incarnation. ,, 

This sign is not merely speculative, but 
practical, and producing grace. No one 
can doubt but that the union of Christ with 
the Church is supernatural, and consists 
in the communication to her of His grace 
as we have it stated by St. Paul (Eph. V, 
25) : "Christ loved the Church and deliv- 
ered Himself up for it, that He might sanc- 
tify it, cleansing it by a laver of water in 
the word of life, that He might present it 
to Himself a glorious Church, not having 
spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but 
that it should be holy and without blem- 
ish." 

This comparison would not be appropri- 
ate unless the union by marriage were also 
supernatural and strengthened by grace. 
For the Apostle in the preceding verse ex- 
acts from the wife perfect obedience, and 
from the husband supernatural love. 
"Therefore, as the Church is subject to 
Christ, so also let the wives be to their 



MATRIMONY. 257 



husbands in all things. Husbands, love 
your wives, as Christ also loved the Church 

and delivered Himself up for it " 

To have this supernatural affection, to pay 
this perfect obedience, the grace of God is 
necessary continually, and such grace as is 
required is conveyed only through the Sac- 
rament. 

The designs of Christ are the same for 
the Christians of one period as for those 
in another; consequently the sign is for- 
ever. 

It would be easy to multiply extracts 
from the Fathers, but this is unnecessary. 
It is enough to state that the Church has 
never varied. What she holds now she 
has always held. If any variations were 
possible, it would certainly have militated 
against the Sacrament; for thus the pas- 
sions of men are inclined. 

When Protestantism was born the whole 
Christian world acknowledged Matrimony 
to be a Sacrament. As every man is sup- 
posed innocent until proven guilty, so 
every witness is regarded as truthful un- 
til proved a liar ; every right is held sacred 
until clearly disproved. The leaders of 



258 THE SACRAMENTS. 

Protestantism content themselves with as- 
serting that the Church went wrong and 
that Matrimony was falsely believed to be 
a Sacrament. The presumption, however, 
is in our favor and our doctrine should be 
admitted until clearly refuted. Protest- 
ants, far from advancing proof against the 
Catholic doctrine, content themselves with 
bare assertions. 




MATRIMONY : Its Unity and 
Indissolubility. 




fpylALVIN, one of the lights of the so- 
\JL| called Reformation, says that the 
Pfa state of marriage is no better or 
holier than that of the farmer, the 
mason, the shoe maker and the barber, 
which states are certainly not Sacraments. 
Starting from such premises, it is not as- 
tonishing that he and his followers should 
deny the sacredness of marriage and rec- 
ognize divorce and even polygamy. 

The Church, on the contrary, has al- 
ways held that marriage is one and that 
it is a contract between two, and that the 
obligations thus incurred no dispensation 
can remove, even her power being insuf- 
ficient, when the marriage has been con- 
summated, to break the contract. All that 
she can do is to judge and decide whether 
under certain circumstances the contract 
is valid or invalid. 

Marriage, in the beginning, was one. 
Afterwards, however, a change was af- 



260 THE SACRAMENTS. 

fected, and men were permitted to retain 
several wives or even exchange them 
almost at pleasure. This was a deviation 
of the law as first established. But God, 
on account of circumstances, tolerated it 
to prevent greater evils. We read that 
the patriarchs and saints of the Old Law 
had several wives. 

All this, however, was changed with the 
coming of Christ, who restored the primi- 
tive law and forbade polygamy among His 
followers. Various are the passages in 
the New Testament in which Christ and 
the Apostles insist upon the unity of Mat- 
rimony. The Church, following the teach- 
ing of her divine Master, has always for- 
bidden polygamy and preserved monog- 
amy in Christendom. Luther, however, 
declared that it was not an obligation, and 
his disciples, following his doctrine, per- 
mitted Philip, Landgrave of Hesse, to have 
two wives. 

The Christian doctrine on this point, 
while very simple and direct, would have 
proved of little value if the Church had 
not applied it with invincible firmness ; for 
the passions of men rebelled against it 



MATRIMONY. 261 



and would have undoubtedly overridden 
it had they not met an impregnable bar- 
rier which did not leave them the most dis- 
tant hope of victory. 

Marriage is not only one but is also 
indissoluble. The bond therein contracted 
cannot be rent asunder so that the man 
and the woman are free to contract other 
nuptials. Under given conditions, a sepa- 
ration from bed and board is permitted, 
but the bond cannot be broken under any 
condition, not even by the Church. This 
is expressly stated by the Council of 
Trent, thereby disproving the constant 
cry of heretics that the Church is ever 
appropriating to herself unlimited power 
and prerogatives. 

The Catholic doctrine regarding the in- 
dissolubility of marriage hardly needs the 
decision of the Church to enforce it on 
our reason ; for this fact is clear from the 
nature and end of marriage and from the 
expressed law of Almighty God as con- 
tained in the Scriptures. 

Whether we consider marriage as a nat- 
ural contract, as a civil contract, or as a 
Sacrament, it stands to reason that it must 



262 THE SACRAMENTS. 

be indissoluble. As a natural contract, 
marriage is the means ordained by 
nature herself for the propagation of 
mankind and the proper education of the 
children, and for the mutual help and com- 
fort of the married couple during their 
mortal pilgrimage. From this fact it is 
manifest that, by the very nature of mar- 
riage, its bonds should be indissoluble. 
Otherwise, the end for which it was insti- 
tuted, the rearing of children and the mu- 
tual help of husband and wife, cannot be 
attained. 

The nature of marriage as a civil con- 
tract likewise supposes its indissolubility; 
for, unless the bond of marriage be abso- 
lutely unbreakable society could not sub- 
sist. Society supposes order, and with 
marriage broken at will, the children would 
be neglected, dissensions would arise and 
confusion as regards property would 
ensue. 

The indissolubility of marriage follows 
from the fact that it is a Sacrament, for 
the Sacrament of Marriage is a sacred 
sign and symbol of the union of Christ 
with His Church. Now this would not be 



MATRIMONY. 263 



true if the union between man and wife 
were not like that of Christ and the 
Church, indissoluble, for we know that 
Christ will be with His Church until the 
end of time. 

By marriage man and woman are two 
in one flesh, and this identity between 
married people renders their union perma- 
nent and unassailable. God Himself, how- 
ever, has by law established the indissolu- 
bility in marriage. This is clear from the 
words of Christ and of His Apostles. We 
read in the nineteenth chapter of St. Mat- 
thew, sixth verse, "Therefore now they 
are not two, but one flesh. What there- 
fore God has joined together let no man 
put asunder." 

And in the sixteenth chapter of St. 
Luke, the eighteenth verse, it is written: 
"Every one that putteth away his wife 
and marrieth another committeth adul- 
tery, and he that marrieth her that is put 
away from her husband committeth 
adultery/' 

St. Paul writes in the seventh chapter 
to the Romans, second verse: "For the 
woman that hath a husband whilst her 



264 THE SACRAMENTS. 

husband liveth is bound to the law. But 
if her husband be dead she is loosed from 
the law of her husband/' 

And again in the first epistle to the 
Corinthians, tenth and eleventh verses, he 
says : "But to them who are married, not 
I, but the Lord commandeth, that the wife 
depart not from her husband. And if she 
depart, that she remain unmarried or be 
reconciled to her husband. And let not 
the husband put away his wife." 

These passages from the Scripture are 
clear and admit no exceptions. Divorce 
was unheard of until the Reformation. 
The evils that have followed in its train 
not only to the individual but to the nation 
show how God punishes those who break 
His law in this matter. 




MATRIMONY : The Banns. 




y^ HE Church has ever been distin- 
V-^ guished by the care and circum- 
spection with which she ad- 
ministers the Sacraments. She 
thinks with her Divine Master that pearls 
should not be thrown to the swine; she 
dreads the profanation of a Sacrament 
and, in this, she differs from the sects 
which regard Matrimony as a mere con- 
tract to be entered into and broken at will. 
The offspring of this carelessness of the 
sects is divorce, which is gnawing at the 
very vitals of society. Marriage among 
some Protestants has fallen from the high 
plane to which Christ raised it, and has 
become a mere byword, a matter of little 
importance. The Church, on the contrary, 
has, from the beginning, taken measures 
to ensure good Christian marriages. She 
takes precaution to prevent the celebra- 
tion of what may afterwards be found to 
be an invalid contract. She is solicitous 
that the contracts of her children should 



266 THE SACRAMENTS. 

be irreproachable and unsuspected and 
therefore she has instituted the Banns. 

When two persons intend to marry their 
intention is signified to the parish priest, 
and this intention is published from the 
altar by their pastor during divine service 
on three different Sundays or holy days, 
that all who may know of any lawful im- 
pediment wherefore the marriage should 
not take place may, in the name of God, 
declare it. This publication of marriage 
intention is called Banns. 

The Banns did not come into universal 
use before the twelfth century, and were 
first instituted and made a law for the 
Universal Church by Innocent III. in one 
of the Councils of the Lateran, 1215. The 
regulation was, however, not strictly en- 
forced, and it was more particularly en- 
acted and its obligations renewed in the 
Council of Trent. Since that time it has 
been received and observed as a weighty 
precept, the violation of which constitutes 
a sin. 

The reasons for this discipline are 
many. It is aimed principally against 
clandestine marriages, which the Church 



MATRIMONY. 267 



has always discouraged and condemned. 
Secret marriages have given rise to so 
many abuses that the Church has at all 
times opposed them. In the past they 
have brought about serious complications 
by which innocent parties have been irrep- 
arably wronged. They open the way for 
scandal. The scanty testimony on which 
they rest would prevent ecclesiastical trib- 
unals from giving any satisfactory deci- 
sion on the validity of a marriage thus 
contracted if the question ever arose, and 
would be made a pretext to break the 
bonds of Matrimony at will. To such pro- 
portions the abuse had grown that the 
Council of Trent devoted a great deal of 
its attention to rendering clandestine mar- 
riage impossible. The publication of the 
Banns is the most effectual way of pre- 
venting clandestine marriages. 

By the publication of the Banns it is pos- 
sible to discover any lawful impediment to 
the marriage, and in a matter of such im- 
portance, all interested may be able to sat- 
isfy themselves that they have acted pru- 
dently and wisely. 

The wisdom of this practice is especially 



268 THE SACRAMENTS. 

clear in these days. Our crowded centres 
of population and the constant moving 
about of the people make it difficult to ob- 
tain the intimate knowledge of persons 
that was common in other days. It often 
happens that the parties about to be mar- 
ried know very little of each other; their 
acquaintance very often is of exceedingly 
short duration. Of the antecedents of the 
first party, the second knows absolutely 
nothing, and vice-versa. 

And how often adventurers, or disrepu- 
table men and women cause untold sorrow 
and disgrace to unsuspecting people. 
Scarcely a day passes that we do not read 
of such sad incidents. 

The hurry that is characteristic of our 
national life is also manifest in the matter 
of marriage. How often we see the old 
adage "Marry in haste, repent at leisure" 
verified. The Banns do away with all this 
unseemly haste, and, where there is con- 
sciousness of inability to marry rightly, 
make the guilty party think twice before 
wronging the other. 

The law which commands these publica- 
tions obliges under pain of sin. At times, 



MATRIMONY. 269 



however, circumstances render the public- 
ation of the Banns either impossible or ex- 
ceedingly inconvenient. In such cases the 
Church dispenses from them but only after 
searching examination. When, however, 
a dispensation is obtained for reasons that 
do not exist, those who allege them are 
guilty of sin. 

This is clear from the terms in which 
the law is laid down by the Councils and 
the reasons for which it was enacted. 
When there are sound and valid reasons 
why the observance of the law should not 
be enforced in particular cases, application 
should be made to the Bishop of the dio- 
cese through the pastor, and the Bishop 
may dispense from one or all of the publi- 
cations. 

In regard to dispensations, the parties 
should consult their pastor, who will give 
them the necessary advice. Here it is well 
to note that dispensations are granted only 
on the payment of a certain sum of money. 
To remove any misunderstanding on this 
point it is well to note that the money is 
not received as a payment for the dispen- 
sation. It is exacted for two reasons ; first 



270 THE SACRAMENTS. 

that the dispensation may be rendered less 
easy to obtain, for men are unfortunately 
more apt to be swayed by motives of self- 
interest than by motives of conscience, and 
the Church makes the observance of her 
laws surer by imposing an alms. 

Second, every dispensation from the gen- 
eral law requires some good work in return 
as a kind of compensation. For instance, 
if one gets a dispensation from fasting, he 
is generally bound to do something instead 
by way of penance, to say more prayers or 
give alms. In the case of a dispensation 
the alms is the good work by which the 
observance of the law is made complete. 

For Catholics the proper and best way 
to go about their being married is to have 
the Banns published. It is the wisest and 
most prudent course. 

A word to parents, concerning the com- 
pany their children keep with a view to 
marriage, would not be out of place here. 
Parents cannot exercise too much care in 
this regard. They should not accept as 
visitors to their homes persons of whom 
they know scarcely anything. Nor should 
they permit too great familiarity. This 



MATRIMONY. 271 



is especially true of marriageable daugh- 
ters. 

The carelessness and crass ignorance of 
some parents are astounding. They have a 
right to know, and should know, those with 
whom their children associate, and, if they 
do not, they should take the trouble to as- 
certain the facts before it is too late. 




MATRIMONY: The Impedi- 
ments. 




ffi 



ARRIAGE is of so great importance 
not only to the individual but to 
the Church and the State that it is 
necessary to take every precaution 
that it be established on a secure footing 
and may not become prejudicial either to 
the contracting parties or to the Church 
or State. For this reason the Church, has 
from the earliest ages, annexed certain 
conditions to the valid celebration of mar- 
riage, failing which the marriage is ren- 
dered null and void or those who contract 
it commit grievous sin. 

The Church does not claim authority to 
dissolve the bond of marriage. She holds 
that this contract, like all others where 
the interest of the third party is con- 
cerned, is of its nature beyond the reach 
of authority as regards annulling any of 
its obligations. On the other hand, the in- 
terests of religion and society require that 



MATRIMONY. 273 

its dissolution should be independent of the 
Will of the parties themselves. 

The Church, however, holds different 
principles with regard to the antecedents 
of marriage. She cannot undo and she 
makes no attempt to nullify, but she can 
prevent, and for this reason she has legis- 
lated and made certain conditions neces- 
sary for the valid and lawful celebration 
of the marriage. 

The Church has authority to prevent 
marriage in certain circumstances, to make 
its validity dependent on the fulfilment of 
certain conditions which she may deter- 
mine. This right flows from the very 
nature of the Sacrament of Matrimony. 
Marriage, by being raised to the dignity of 
a Sacrament, did not cease to be a con- 
tract; but by becoming a sacred contract, 
it was taken from the control of the civil 
power, and made subject to ecclesiastical 
authority only. 

All contracts are regulated by author- 
ity; and States have from the beginning 
claimed and exercised the right of making 
laws concerning the drawing up and ful- 
filment of contracts. They have imposed 



274 THE SACRAMENTS. 

certain conditions which they consider ne- 
cessary and indispensable to the validity 
of a contract. 

This power the Church claims in regard 
to marriage, which, as a sacred contract, 
has been taken from the control of the 
State and subjected to her alone. In some 
cases, she has thought well to declare that, 
without the fulfilment of certain specified 
conditions the marriage is null and void 
and no marriage at all in the sight of 
God and of His Church. In other cases, 
she has placed conditions whose violation 
has only the effect of rendering the mar- 
riage illicit and sinful in those who know- 
ingly contract it, but which is valid in 
itself. 

In the former case there is no marriage ; 
in the latter, there is a real marriage but 
contracted in sin. 

We may illustrate the effect of these 
conditions by the reception of the Blessed 
Sacrament. If a man receive by mistake 
a host that was not consecrated he would 
appear to receive but would not actually 
receive any Sacrament. If he received in 
mortal sin the consecrated host he would 



MATRIMONY. 275 



receive the Sacrament but his act would 
be sinful and sacrilegious. 

Likewise in marriage. There are two 
kinds of impediments: impediments that 
make marriage impossible, and impedi- 
ments that do not invalidate but render 
marriage illicit, or as they are called in 
canon law, diriment and prohibitory im- 
pediments. 

It is well to note here that not only are 
there impediments of this character estab- 
lished by the authority of the Church, but 
there are some which are imposed by the 
law of nature itself and others declared by 
the direct command of God Himself. From 
the impediments arising from the natural 
and divine laws there is no dispensation, 
for from these laws no power, not even 
that of the Church, can make exemption. 

We shall not attempt in this instruction 
to go into detail regarding the impediments 
that render a marriage null and void. We 
Shall merely enumerate them, leaving in- 
dividual cases to the judgment of the 
priest to whom such cases are to be 
brought. 

Some of these impediments affect the 



276 THE SACRAMENTS. 

consent while others affect the persons 
themselves. As regards the consent, a 
marriage is rendered null if the person is 
not conscious, or is without the use of 
reason. Hence a mad or crazy person can- 
not contract marriage, because such a per- 
son cannot be said to be free. 

It is also void when there is a capital or 
substantial error with regard to a person, 
since in such a case the will is wanting. It 
is null when a person is married under the 
influence of violence, unjustly used and so 
strong as to take away moral liberty. 

A person already validly married, whose 
partner still lives, cannot contract another 
marriage validly. Nor can such persons 
as are impotent. Neither can they who 
have been ordained Bishops, priests, dea- 
cons and subdeacons, nor those who have 
made a solemn vow of chastity in some 
approved religious order, either of men or 
women. 

They cannot marry who are related 
within the forbidden degrees of blood re- 
lationship and affinity. This impediment 
exists to the fourth degree in collateral 
line except in cases of affinity contracted 



MATRIMONY. 277 



by unlawful relations, in which case the 
impediment exists only to the second de- 
gree. In spiritual affinity the impediment 
exists only between the sponsors and the 
child and the sponsors and the parents of 
the child. 

It is forbidden under pain of nullity to 
marry an unbaptized person. In case of 
abduction the marriage is null. The crime 
of adultery with the promise of marriage 
is a diriment impediment; likewise where 
both have conspired to murder one of the 
parties married, or where adultery and 
homicide are united. 

Until Easter, 1908, in this country all 
marriages contracted between Catholics or 
a Catholic and a baptized Protestant, 
whether before a minister or a justice of 
the peace were considered valid, although 
illicit. In that year, however, Pius X, of 
holy memory, placed a new, essential con- 
dition affecting the validity of marriage. 
By this legislation no marriage of Cath- 
olics is valid which is not contracted in 
the presence of the parish priest or a priest 
delegated by him and two witnesses. All 
marriages otherwise contracted are not 



278 THE SACRAMENTS. 

only illicit but invalid. This is an essential 
condition for a valid marriage, and affects 
Catholics only. 

The prohibitory impediments to mar- 
riage have the effect not of rendering the 
contract invalid but of making it illicit and 
sinful. It is forbidden to contract mar- 
riage without its having been duly pub- 
lished or lawfully and justly dispensed 
therefrom; to marry a heretic and to 
marry in forbidden times. 

It is also forbidden to marry a person 
when one is under a mutual promise of 
marriage to another. In this case it is 
unlawful and a sin of injustice, because it 
is a manifest injury done to the person to 
whom marriage had been promised. This 
is a thing which is too little considered. 
One is astounded at the levity with which 
persons bind themselves by promises and 
break them on the most frivolous pretence 
and in the most shameful circumstances. 

A person who has bound himself to God 
by a simple private vow of chastity is for- 
bidden to contract marriage until dis- 
pensed. 

Lastly there is an impediment to which 



MATRIMONY. 279 



very little attention is paid in these days, 
and that is the consent of the parents. In 
this country, especially, young people 
think they have no need whatsoever of the 
consent of their parents. In other times 
much stress was laid upon this. It is, how- 
ever, subject to much variation and is to 
be judged according to particular cases. 




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